Meaning & use

round file

phrase·Advanced

To discard something, especially a document, by throwing it in the trash rather than filing it away.

See it in a sentence

The editor round-filed the manuscript after reading only the first page.

Most of the complaint letters were quietly round-filed instead of being answered.

A note on using this word

An informal, joking office term, referring to a wastebasket as if it were a proper filing system.

Words with a similar meaning

discardtoss out

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

keep

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