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Glite Dictionary
to round up the cattle

to round up the cattle

4.4
Gather cattle into a group to move or count them
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : reunir el ganado
  • They used their horses to round up the cattle for the annual count on the ranch.

Examples

  • The rancher called his dogs to help round up the cattle that had strayed into the woods.

  • "The film documents kids rounding up the cattle who never came home, found tangled in barbed wire, suffocated to death, choking," Burns said.

    Blog text (3)

  • "When I was young, we boys would go out to help round up the cattle.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Cowboys round up the cattle.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • That's Russell rounding up the cattle, something he often does on his ranch.

    3:10 to Yuma (2007)

  • Every morning, the cowboys gather at dawn to round up the cattle before driving them to the pasture.

Synonyms

to round up
vsto round up the cattle
169 3.2

To bring people, animals, or things together in one place

is limited to gathering livestock for moving or counting tasks
to corral
vsto round up the cattle
12 5.2

To gather and put animals or people into a pen to keep them together

focuses on gathering animals to move or count them rather than enclosing
to wrangle
vsto round up the cattle
  • US
3 7.2

To herd and care for animals like cattle or horses

is a one-time gathering aimed at moving or counting animals
to cattle up
vsto round up the cattle
  • Australian
8.9

To gather cattle or other farm animals into one place

is about gathering animals especially for moving or counting them

Antonyms

to release
∞ 1.8

To let someone or something go free from being held

Surface Forms

round up the cattle infinitive
rounded up the cattle past
rounded up the cattle past participle
rounding up the cattle present participle
rounds up the cattle third person singular

Morphology

round + up + the + cattle

The verb phrase is a productive phrasal verb where 'round' (move around) plus the particle 'up' (bring together/complete) yields the sense 'gather together', so the meaning is partly derivable from the constituents. However, the specific use for collecting animals is a conventionalized extension of that motion+completion pattern and relies on knowledge of English phrasal-verb semantics, so it is not fully transparent to learners without exposure.

Etymology

Round up the cattle comes from ranch work. Cowboys rode around the animals to push them into one group, bringing the herd round and up, so the phrase means 'to gather or collect cattle'.