pounce

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To spring or swoop with intent to seize someone or something: a cat that pounced on a mouse; watched the falcon pounce on the baby rabbit.
2. v. To attack suddenly: irregular troops who pounced on the convoy at a narrow pass; a colleague who pounced on me because of a mistake in my report.
3. v. To seize something swiftly and eagerly: pounce on an opportunity.
4. v. To seize with or as if with talons.
5. n. The act or an instance of pouncing.
6. n. The talon or claw of a bird of prey.
7. n. A fine powder formerly used to smooth and finish writing paper and soak up ink.
8. n. A fine powder, such as pulverized charcoal, dusted over a stencil to transfer a design to an underlying surface.
9. v. To sprinkle, smooth, or treat with pounce.
10. v. To transfer (a stenciled design) with pounce.
11. v. To ornament (metal, for example) by perforating from the back with a pointed implement.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To punch; prick; perforate; make holes in; specifically, to ornament by perforating or cutting; ornament with holes, especially eyelet-holes.
2. To cut, as glass or metal; ornament by cutting.
3. To seize with the pounces; strike suddenly with the claws or talons.
4. In hat-making, to raise a nap on (a felt hat). See pouncing-machine.
5. To fall on and seize with the pounces or talons; dart or dash upon, like a bird of prey upon its victim; seize suddenly: used with on or upon.
6. n. A punch or puncheon; a stamp.
7. n. A sharp-pointed graver.
8. n. Cloth pounced, or worked with eyelet-holes.
9. n. A claw or talon of a bird of prey; the claw or paw of any animal.
10. n. A substance, such as powdered sepia-bone or powdered sandarach, used to prevent blotting in rewriting over erasures, and in medicine as an antacid; also, a similar powder used in the preparation of parchment or writing-paper.
11. n. A powder (especially, the gum of the juniper-tree reduced to a finely pulverized state, or finely powdered pipe-clay darkened by charcoal) inclosed in a bag of some open stuff, and passed over holes pricked in a design to transfer the lines to a paper underneath. This kind of pounce is used by embroiderers to transfer their patterns to their stuffs; also by fresco-painters, and sometimes by engravers.
12. n. A powder used as a medicine or cosmetic.
13. To sprinkle or rub with pounce; powder.
14. To trace by rubbing pounce through holes pricked in the outline of a pattern: as, to pounce a design. See pouncing.
15. To imprint or copy a design upon by means of pounce. See pouncing.
16. In hat-making, to grind or finish (felt hats) by dressing them with sandpaper.

Wiktionary

1. n. A type of fine powder sprinkled over wet ink to dry the ink after writing.
2. v. intransitive To leap into the air intending to seize someone or something.
3. v. intransitive To attack suddenly.
4. v. intransitive To eagerly seize an opportunity.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A fine powder, as of sandarac, or cuttlefish bone, -- formerly used to prevent ink from spreading on manuscript.
2. n. Charcoal dust, or some other colored powder for making patterns through perforated designs, -- used by embroiderers, lace makers, etc.
3. v. To sprinkle or rub with pounce.
4. n. The claw or talon of a bird of prey.
5. n. obsolete A punch or stamp.
6. n. obsolete Cloth worked in eyelet holes.
7. v. Archaic To strike or seize with the talons; to pierce, as with the talons.
8. v. obsolete To punch; to perforate; to stamp holes in, or dots on, by way of ornament.
9. v. To fall suddenly and seize with the claws; -- with on or upon. Also used figuratively.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the act of pouncing
2. v. move down on as if in an attack