runround

runround (plural runrounds)

1. (US, pathology, informal, dated) A felon or whitlow.
   • 1871, Oliver Optic, Our Boys and Girls - Volumes 9-10, page 504:

     This time it was my "runround;" and before she took off her bonnet, she had brought me a cup of ashes and water, and put my finger in soak.

   • 1880, Edward Lawrence Keyes, The Venereal Diseases: Including Stricture of the Male Urethra, page 175:

     The ulcerative form resembles ingrowing nail, but in the syyphilitic disease the matrix is usually involved first, and not secondarily, as in ordinary ingrowing nail, or in common runround.

   • 1907, Carl Reissig, The Standard Family Physician:

     Runround is always the result of an injury which may be very trivial.

   • 1914, Comfort, page 19:

     I have a horse that had a runround on its hoof, about four months ag . A new hoof has grown out about two inches, but it is still sore at back of hoof and pus forms in the parts affected, and sometimes the leg swells.

   • 2000, Eron Rowland, Varina Howell, Volume 1: Wife of Jefferson Davis, page 412:

     I have a very painful thumb, a runround has caused it to ache violently, so I must close.

2. (rail transport) A route that loops around local rail yards for the transfer of goods (and sometimes used to turn cars around).
   • 2018, Norman Hill, King's Cross Second Man: A Sixties Diesel Career:

     So far I had shared driving on station-pilots, runround trips, empty coaches and suburban passenger jobs.

   • 2020, P D Rendall, Severn Tunnel Junction:

     Two sidings – one a runround loop – were laid alongside the down platform at Severn Tunnel Junction station.

   • 2020, Paul Lawton, Lost Lines: Bangor to Afon Wen, page 45:

     Laid as a single line, the WHR was provided with a runround loop at Dinas on the site of the former LNWR line, and two platforms were constructed.

3. (mining) A track arrangement (usually a loop) that allows mine cars to be redirected without reversing.
   • 1954, Colliery Engineering - Volume 31, page 8:

     As the pithead (Fig. 15) had not been designed for large wide gauge cars it was necessary to replace the usual runround with a traverser.

   • 1955, Federated Institution of Mining Engineers - Volume 115, page 300:

     We are moving away from the normal type of runround.

   • 1960, The Iron and Coal Trades' Review - Volume 180, page 1411:

     A shaft runround was made to conduct the empties from the tippler to the empty side of the shaft where they would rejoin the old circuit.

4. (nautical) A circular area or platform on a ship.
   • 1941, Santa Barbara County Units of Study for Teachers, page 286:

     From the runround to the ground there are 11 gerts. From the runround to the crow's nest there are 6 gerts.

   • 1962, Petroleum Times - Volume 66, Part 1, page 37:

     […] runround of tankers, supertankers and big slups of all types, this new dock is 80 feet long by 150 feet wide , and provision has been made for lengthening a to 1,900 feet.

   • 1992, Elmer P. Wheaton, “William Bradford Whitehill Rand”, in Memorial Tributes: Volume 5, page 234:

     This first ship had a small geophysical-type drilling rig mounted over the side of the ship with a steel grid runround for the roughnecks, who stood in knee-deep water while making connections or pulling the drill string.

5. A woman's shoe with a rounded toe, flexible sole, and turned upper popular in the 19th century for dancing.
   • 1892, Parker Lindall Converse, 1642-1892: Legends of Woburn, page 52:

     The gentlemen always wore "pumps" as they were called, that is, very light turned slippers without innersole or heel, the soles of the best specimens, being well pounded to make them soft and pliable; while the ladies wore a light shoe called a "runround," or "springheel," usually held snug in place by long ribbons passing herring-bone-like around the ankles.

   • 1912, The Register of the Lynn Historical Society:

     Previous to the fifties, most of the shoes made were welts, or spring heels, and later most of the work changed to turns or "runrounds" as they were called.

   • 1981, Paul Gustaf Faler, Mechanics and Manufacturers in the Early Industrial Revolution, page 91:

     Nathan D. Chase, a well-to-do boss who accumulated enough wealth to retire in 1850 at middle age, observed that the prices for making shoes remained low from 1837 to 1842: 4 cents for red-bottomed cacks, 8 cents for women's turned slippers, 10 cents for thick-heeled runrounds, 12 cents for set heels, 20 cents for welts.

6. A quick tour of inspection.
   • 1854, “Notes on Belfast Botanic Garden, and a Few Country Seats in the Counties Down and Antrim, Ireland”, in The Scottish Gardener, page 344:

     These walls, so far as we could judge from a hasty runround, were well furnished with wall-trees, with an abundant crop, well set, and swelling off.

   • 2009, Mike Ashley, The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures:

     "We have just had a little run-round in the boat,” he explained, as they stepped ashore.

7. Alternative form of runaround (any sense).
   • 1906, Henry David Thoreau, The Maine woods, page 56:

     These, and the frequent "runrounds" which come into the river again, would embarrass an inexperienced voyager not a little.

   • 1909, Foreman, “Fishing Hosiery”, in Textile World and Industrial Record, volume 37, page 142:

     It can easily be accomplished by having a trap on the main line leading from press and another pipe or runround leading around trap to be used for water when cooling the plates .

   • 1966, K.A. D. Naoroji, Sainik Samachar - Volume 13, Issues 1-25, page 26:

     In those days, Indians were not being given the King's Commission and the two Pasis, Nasli Padamjee and I, who were at Cambridge and enlisted, were given a polite runround for almost a month. We only understood afterwards that there was some circular about not taking Indians in the combatant ranks.

• “runround”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.