POUND • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Pound

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/paʊnd/ Listen

noun

Pound n.

An inclosure, maintained by public authority, in which cattle or other animals are confined when taken in trespassing, or when going at large in violation of law; a pinfold.

A level stretch in a canal between locks.

(Fishing) A kind of net, having a large inclosure with a narrow entrance into which fish are directed by wings spreading outward.

Pound covert, a pound that is close or covered over, as a shed.

Pound overt, a pound that is open overhead.

Pound n. (pl. pounds, collectively pound or pounds)

A certain specified measure of mass or weight; especially, a legal standard consisting of an established number of ounces. Note: The pound in general use in the United States and in England is the pound avoirdupois, which is divided into sixteen ounces, and contains 7,000 grains (0.453 kilogram). The pound troy is divided into twelve ounces, and contains 5,760 grains. 144 pounds avoirdupois are equal to 175 pounds troy weight. See Avoirdupois, and Troy.

A British denomination of money of account, equivalent to twenty shillings sterling, and equal in value to about $4.86 in 1900 and $1.50 in 2002. The modern pound coin was introduced in 1983. Formerly there was a gold sovereign of the same value. Note: The pound sterling was in Saxon times, about a. d. 671, a pound troy of silver, and a shilling was its twentieth part; consequently the latter was three times as large as it is at present.

verb

Pound v. t. (past & past part. pounded; pres. part. pounding)

To strike repeatedly with some heavy instrument; to beat. "With cruel blows she pounds her blubbered cheeks."

To comminute and pulverize by beating; to bruise or break into fine particles with a pestle or other heavy instrument; as, to pound spice or salt.

Pound v. t. To confine in, or as in, a pound; to impound.

Pound v. i.

To strike heavy blows; to beat.

(Mach.) To make a jarring noise, as in running; as, the engine pounds.

See images of 'Pound'

Etymology of 'Pound'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Pound" Quotes from Famous Books

... a certainty for attempting to desert. I'd advise you to cut and run this very night. Now, lad, fair play's a jewel. I am helping you off, and I expect to be paid for what I'm doing, as well as for the clothes I got for you. A five-pound note will satisfy me, though it wouldn't if you were not a chum of my ...

— The Rival Crusoes • W.H.G. Kingston

... administrator to their bar, keep him standing three-quarters of an hour, seize his papers and oblige him, for fear of something worse, to leave the town.[2461] Sometimes, as at Auch, they invade the Directory's chambers, seize the administrators by the throat, pound them with their fists and clubs, drag the president by the hair, and, after a good deal of trouble, grant him his life.[2462]—On the other hand, the gendarmerie and the troops brought for the suppression ...

— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 3 (of 6) - The French Revolution, Volume 2 (of 3) • Hippolyte A. Taine

... as famous as the American gunners and seamen. The new Wasp, like her sister ships, carried twenty-two guns and a crew of one hundred and seventy men, and was ship-rigged. Twenty of her guns were 32-pound carronades, while for bow-chasers she had two "long Toms." It was in the year 1814 that the Wasp sailed from the United States to prey on the navy and commerce of Great Britain. Her commander was a gallant South Carolinian named Captain Johnson Blakeley. Her crew were nearly all native ...

— Hero Tales From American History • Henry Cabot Lodge, and Theodore Roosevelt

... 1 pound, 1s.—to Non-Subscribers 1 pound, 5s. The First Volume will be devoted to Ancient Popular Poetry; the Second will give the choicest productions of the Modern School, ...

— The Life of George Borrow • Herbert Jenkins

... the town could support them much cheaper where they were, so he gave up his project, and bought Mary a pound of seed cakes and Alice a stick of candy. Then, the moment the rain had ceased he got himself in readiness to start, for he knew how long the day would seem to Mary, and how much Alice would miss her cradle. Three times before he got outside the gate his mother ...

— The English Orphans • Mary Jane Holmes

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