Roun"del (?), n. [OF. rondel a roundelay, F. rondel, rondeau, a dim. fr. rond; for sense 2, cf. F. rondelle a round, a round shield. See Round, a., and cf. Rondel, Rondelay.]
1. Mus.
A rondelay.
"Sung all the
roundel lustily."
Chaucer.
Come, now a roundel and a fairy song.
Shak.
2.
Anything having a round form; a round figure; a circle.
The Spaniards, casting themselves into roundels, . . . made a flying march to Calais.
Bacon.
Specifically: (a)
A small circular shield, sometimes not more than a foot in diameter, used by soldiers in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
. (b) Her.
A circular spot; a sharge in the form of a small circle
. (c) Fort.
A bastion of a circular form
.
© Webster 1913.