pound (English, verb)
Pronunciation: ipa: /paʊnd/
rhymes: -aʊnd
Etymology: From an alteration of earlier poun, pown, from Middle English pounen, from Old English pūnian (“to pound, beat, bray, bruise, crush”), from Proto-West Germanic *pūn- (“broken pieces, rubble”). Related to Saterland Frisian Pün (“debris, fragments”), West Frisian pún (“debris, rubble”), Dutch puin (“debris, fragments, rubbish”), Low German pun (“fragments”).
Definitions: examples: text: She had Lord James' collar in one big fist and she pounded the table with the other and talked a blue streak. Nobody could make out plain what she said, for she was mainly jabbering Swede lingo, but there was English enough, of a kind, to give us some idee.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
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text: [...] and on the Saturday heavy seas pounded the W.R. on its exposed coastal stretch between Dawlish and Teignmouth, loosening the ballast and forcing trains to proceed with extreme caution.
ref: 1960 December, “Talking of Trains: The railways and the Devon floods”, in Trains Illustrated, page 709:
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text: I pounded on a farmhouse / Lookin' for a place to stay / I was mighty, mighty tired / I had come a long, long way
ref: 1964, Bob Dylan, “Motorpsycho Nitemare”:
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synonyms: hammer
pelt
hit
glosses: To strike hard, usually repeatedly.
tags: transitive
examples: text: Pound an onion, warm a spoonful of ghee and throw in the onion, brown it slightly, add your curry stuff, brown this till it smells pleasantly, […]
ref: 1887, Indian Cookery "Local" for Young Housekeepers: Second Edition, page 67:
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text: It was the hour before the first crowing of the cocks, and along with Nyo Boto and Grandma Yaisa's clattering, the first sound the child heard was the muted, rhythmic bombpabombpabomp of wooden pestles as the other women of the village pounded couscous grain in their mortars, preparing the traditional breakfast of porridge that was cooked in earthen pots over a fire built among three rocks.
ref: 1976, Alex Haley, chapter 1, in Roots: The Saga of an American Family:
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synonyms: pulverate
triturate
glosses: To crush to pieces; to pulverize.
tags: transitive
examples: text: You really pounded that beer!
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type: example
text: The sounds of a house-party rolled down the street / So we pounded our Pilsner and leapt to our feet
ref: 2007, “Fire Marshall Willy”, performed by The Dreadnoughts:
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synonyms: bolt
down
chug
eat
drink
glosses: To eat or drink very quickly.
tags: slang
transitive
examples: text: The pitcher has been pounding the outside corner all night.
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type: example
topics: ball-games
baseball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To pitch consistently to a certain location.
tags: slang
transitive
examples: text: As I tiptoed past the sleeping dog, my heart was pounding but I remained silent.
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type: example
text: My head was pounding.
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type: example
text: It was now about three o’clock in the morning and Francis Macomber, who had been asleep a little while after he had stopped thinking about the lion, wakened and then slept again, woke suddenly, frightened in a dream of the bloody-headed lion standing over him, and listening while his heart pounded, he realized that his wife was not in the other cot in the tent.
ref: 1936, Ernest Hemingway, The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber:
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qualifier: generally heart; blood; or head; generally heart; blood; or head
glosses: To beat strongly or throb.
tags: intransitive
raw_tags: of a body part
examples: text: I was pounding her all night!
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type: example
text: She acting, so I'm attacking, try break the mattress / Sexy, so I suggested to switch to sideways / Pounded for 'bout a hour she said she tired
ref: 2008, Gucci Mane, “Bachelor Pad”, in The Movie:
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synonyms: drill
get up in
nail
poke
copulate with
glosses: To penetrate sexually, with vigour.
tags: slang
transitive
vulgar
examples: text: We pounded along, stopped, landed soldiers; went on, landed custom–house clerks to levy toll in what looked like a God–forsaken wilderness, with a tin shed and a flag–pole lost in it; landed more soldiers—to take care of the custom–house clerks, presumably.
ref: 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I:
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glosses: To advance heavily with measured steps.
examples: text: The engine pounds.
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type: example
topics: engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To make a jarring noise, as when running.
Forms: form: pounds
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: pounding
tags: participle
present
form: pounded
tags: participle
past
form: pounded
tags: past
form: poun
tags: alternative
form: pown
tags: alternative
Synonyms: english: to strike a blow with the hand/fist
word: buffet
Derived terms: enough sense to pound sand into a rathole
ground and pound
pound a beat
pound dirt
pound down
pounding
pound out
pound salt
pound sand
pound sand into a rathole
pound the pavement
pound the table
pound town
pound up
pulse-pounding
take to pound town
Related terms: bang