round robin

Meaning

Noun

• The part of a tournament in which every player or team competes against each of the others in turn.
• A petition signed in a circular fashion to disguise the order in which it was done.
• A letter, with copies to multiple recipients, usually at Christmastime and often enclosed with a card, giving family news of interest to the sender.
• A method of dividing loot amongst a party of players by having the game assign in turn loot to a player or an enemy corpse to loot to a player.
• A form of trade, a series of exchanges in which each person in turn receives items of the same value from the previous person, finally returning to the original donor. For example in a stamp collector sends a packet of stamps to the next person on a list, who then takes the stamps he wants, replacing them with like-valued stamps, and then passing the packet to the next person on the list, until the packet ultimately returns to the original sender.
• A method of dividing labor between several similar subsystems, assigning tasks to each of them in turn in an attempt to use resources more equitably.
• A form of bet on the full set of possible combinations from a larger group (of teams, racehorses, etc.), such as the outcomes A+B, B+C and A+C from a group ABC.

Origin

• 1731, anglicization of French ruban rond, in English originally in British Royal Navy usage. Originally in sense of signing petitions in circular order so that the leaders could not be identified. Originated in 17th century France, where government officials signed petitions of grievances on ribbons, which were attached to the petition in a circle. Later adopted in the British Royal Navy, where petitions were signed with signatures arranged like spokes of a wheel. Sense of "tournament" from 1895. Unrelated to robin.