round up

verb

1. to gather (animals, suspects, etc) together

   to round ponies up

2. to raise (a number) to the nearest whole number or ten, hundred, or thousand above it Compare round down

noun

1. the act of gathering together livestock, esp cattle, so that they may be branded, counted, or sold
2. any similar act of collecting or bringing together

   a roundup of today's news

3. a collection of suspects or criminals by the police, esp in a raid

Idioms and Phrases

Collect or gather in a body, as in We'll have to round up some more volunteers for the food drive , or The police rounded up all the suspects . This term comes from the West, where since the mid-1800s it has been used for collecting livestock by riding around the herd and driving the animals together. By about 1875 it was extended to other kinds of gathering together.

Example Sentences

The gains point to the big opportunity investors see for private prison operators as Trump vows to round up and deport millions of migrants.

From BBC

It would also face a practical problem: The federal government doesn’t have enough immigration agents to round up 11 million people.

From Los Angeles Times

“Their stocks, which could benefit from Trump’s plans for rounding up millions of immigrants, rocketed higher today 41% and 29% respectively.”

From Salon

And he has threatened to round up millions of immigrants in deportation camps.

From Los Angeles Times

Some American journalists and politicians couched their desire to round up and imprison Japanese Americans in humanitarian terms: to protect them from potential mob violence.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• bring in
• bring together
• herd