round table meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

round table

nounalso spelled round-table

/ˈɹaʊn(d).teɪbl̩/

Etymology From Middle English rounde table, ronde tabell, equivalent to round + table.

A conference at which participants of similar status discuss and exchange views.

Broadcasting, Media, Television A television show segment in which pundits or reporters discuss current events.

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see round, table.

verb

To discuss at a round table conference.

The freshly printed petitions had been taken over to city hall and "round-tabled." Five or six city employees — all of whom owed their jobs to the machine — sat around a table and passed petition blanks and voter registration lists in a circle. Each person copied every fifth or sixth name from the registration list. That way, the forgeries weren't so obvious.1976, David Anderson, Peter Benjaminson, Investigative Reporting, Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 90:
Day after day they read materials and then round-tabled the value of what they could glean from them.2010, Claudette Rothman, Gerald L. Jones, Greenwich Secrets, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 314: