Definition of "round to"

round to

verb
third-person singular simple present rounds to, present participle rounding to, simple past and past participle rounded to
1. (nautical, intransitive, dated) To turn the head of a ship toward the wind, especially in order to drop speed.
  Quotations
  In less than an hour she was close to the reef, where she rounded to, and backed her topsails in order to survey the coast.
  1857, R. M. Ballantyne, The Coral Island
  she received a signal of two blasts from the steamer Burlington, which, with four barges in tow, had gone down the Canadian side of the river, and was then rounding to at the coal dock on the American side, exhibiting her masthead and green lights to the Conemaugh.
  1899', Henry Billings Brown, The New York