A round of toast

[PigeonPairinSomerset]

If you ordered a round of toast, would you expect to get one slice or two?

I’ll go first:

A slice of toast - one piece
A piece of toast - one piece
A round of toast - two pieces

Justification:

A round of drinks: more than one drink
A round of golf: more than one hole

My husband agrees with me but several of our friends don’t. Who’s right?

Why would a round of golf and a round of toast have the same meaning?

Presumably in golf it's from iterally going round the course

How does a round of applause fit in? More than one clap, more than one hand?

Well yes of course, its indicative of more than one thing.

Clapping with one hand would be half a round I think. Clapping on your thigh would probably equal three quarters.

The Oxford English Dictionary says the earliest recorded usage of '...rounds of buttered toast' is in Dickens's Barnaby Rudge, published 1840, 53 years before the very first electric toaster and more like 100-150 before a toaster started being a regular household appliance.
Toasters, then, have got fuck all to do with it. 😂

A round of toast = one slice of bread

A round of sandwiches = two slices of bread

How many slices did they say?

A round of toast is two slices. Anyone who says differently is wrong. 🍞🍞

Well the BR quote is 'A couple of pounds of buttered toast.' But as far as I know it doesn't say how many slices that is, and I haven't got a copy of BR to hand (nor do I know where in the book the quote comes), so I can't help with that bit.
🍞🧇🧇🧇🧇🧇
Bugger I think those are waffles. Oh well.

Wow, that’s heavy man.

I think the only definitive answer to this question is that there's no definitive answer to this question...

This. A round of toast is one slice of bread, cut in half to give two pieces of toast.

As a child in the 60s both my parents and my grandmother would say ‘ Would you like toast? One round or two?. Meaning one slice or two. As a pp said, a round of bread is one slice. A round of toast is one slice.

I agree.

To me a round of toast is 2 slices HOWEVER i worked in catering for many years and know its 1 slice.

So you’re right even if you don’t agree with it?

I think it's just...however many slices of toast you need in one go
If I were having breakfast at a B&B and a waiter asked "can I get you guys another round of toast?" I'd expect enough toast for everyone - they wouldn't need to say "four more rounds of toast?"
At least, that makes sense in my head

This is the important question.

And no presidence was set so no one knows despite them thinking they do.

Toast = one slice of bread toasted and cut in half, making two pieces.

Round of toast = two slices of bread, four pieces.

In this context, 'round' doesn't mean the same thing as it means in 'a round of drinks'. Words can have more than one meaning.

In the case of a 'round of toast' or 'a round of sandwiches' it means 'consisting of a full slice, not half'. It means made from a full slice (as opposed to a triangle of bread from a slice cut into halves or quarters). But it's really not necessary to say 'round' at all; it's not the 1930s and we don't need to talk about 'rounds' of sandwiches/toast, any more than we need to talk about listening to 'the wireless' or 'drawing' a hot bath.

If you had a sandwich it'd be two bits of bread...so toast should be.

one piece in toast or bread form, a sandwiches made from 2 pieces of bread in sandwich form.

I don't know why but it always brings to mind the old-fashioned way of slicing bread where the loaf is stood on end, the mum (yes, always the mum!) butters the top and then slices the top off horizontally to make the round. I think the loaves they used for that were closer to cylinders, marked with rings. Milk loaf maybe?

I'm not at all sure this is the origin of the word but it may be why it's never occurred to me that a round of toast would be anything other than one piece.

Exactly my point, the OP is trying to make out there is a correlation between the meanings of the word round in different phrases, it's stupid, but then the whole thread is a bit unnecessary as the meaning can be clarified at the time of whatever conversation is taking place, it's not like the whole world has to have a rigid definition

I just want to say, I love toast!!!

I often clap on my thigh if I have a drink in my hand.