Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A public enclosure for the confinement of stray animals, especially dogs.
  • noun A place in which vehicles impounded by the authorities are held until redeemed by their owners.
  • noun An enclosure in which animals, especially farm animals, are kept.
  • noun A container, as on a boat, in which fish are kept.
  • noun Archaic A prison.
  • transitive verb To confine (an animal) in a pound.
  • noun A unit of weight equal to 16 ounces (453.592 grams).
  • noun A unit of apothecary weight equal to 12 ounces (373.242 grams).
  • noun A unit of weight differing in various countries and times.
  • noun The primary unit of currency in the United Kingdom, worth 20 shillings or 240 old pence before the decimalization of 1971.
  • noun The primary unit of currency in Ireland and Cyprus before the adoption of the euro.
  • noun A primary unit of currency in Scotland before the Act of Union (1707).
  • noun The pound key on a telephone.
  • intransitive verb To strike repeatedly and forcefully, especially with the hand or a tool: synonym: beat.
  • intransitive verb To assault with military force.
  • intransitive verb To beat to a powder or pulp; pulverize or crush.
  • intransitive verb To instill by persistent, emphatic repetition.
  • intransitive verb To produce energetically, as from forceful use of the hands. Often used with out.
  • intransitive verb To cause harm or loss to; affect adversely.
  • intransitive verb To defeat soundly.
  • intransitive verb To attack verbally; criticize.
  • intransitive verb Slang To drink quickly (a beverage, especially an alcoholic one). Often used with back or down.
  • intransitive verb To strike vigorous, repeated blows.
  • intransitive verb To move along heavily and noisily.
  • intransitive verb To pulsate rapidly and heavily; throb.
  • intransitive verb To move or work laboriously.
  • noun A heavy blow.
  • noun The sound of a heavy blow; a thump.
  • noun The act of pounding.
  • idiom (pound the pavement) To travel the streets on foot, especially in search of work.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A compartment in an abattoir in which animals can be kept until they are slaughtered.
  • noun A fundamental unit of weight or mass.
  • noun A money of account, consisting of 20 shillings, or 240 pence, originally equivalent to a pound weight of silver (or of the alloy used).
  • noun A balance.
  • To weigh.
  • To wager a pound on.
  • noun An inclosure, maintained by authority, for confining cattle or other beasts when taken trespassing, or going at large in violation of law; a pinfold. Pounds were also used for the deposit of goods seized by distress.
  • noun A pond.
  • noun In a canal, the level portion between two locks.
  • noun A pound-net; also, either one, inner or outer, of the compartments of such a net, or the inclosure of a gang of nets in which the fish are finally entrapped. See cut under pound-net.
  • To shut up in a pound; impound; confine as in a pound; hence, to imprison; confine.
  • Figuratively, to keep within narrow limits; cramp; restrain.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English pund-, enclosure (as in pundfall, pen).]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English pund, from West Germanic *punda-, from Latin (lībra) pondō, (a pound) by weight; see (s)pen- in Indo-European roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English pounden, alteration of pounen, from Old English pūnian.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old English pund ("a pound, weight"), from Proto-Germanic *pundan (“pound, weight”), an early borrowing from Latin pondō ("by weight"), ablative form of pondus ("weight"), from Proto-Indo-European *pend-, *spend- (“to pull, stretch”). Cognate with Dutch pond, German Pfund, Swedish pund.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From an alteration of earlier poun, pown, from Middle English pounen, from Old English pūnian ("to pound, beat, bray, bruise, crush"), from Proto-Germanic *pūnōnan (“to break to pieces, pulverise”). Related to Saterland Frisian Pün ("debris, fragments"), Dutch puin ("debris, fragments, rubbish"), Low German pun ("fragments"). Perhaps influenced by Etymology 2 Middle English *pound, pond, from Old English *pund, pynd, in relation to the hollow mortar for pounding with the pestle.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English *pound, pond, from Old English *pund (“an inclosure”), attested by pyndan ("to enclose, shut up, dam, impound"). Compare also Old English pynd ("a cistern, lake").

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Examples

  • Results have shown sustained weightloss comparable to dieting clubs but £pound for lb pound it's far cheaper.

    Releases feed from RealWire 2009

  • Results have shown sustained weightloss comparable to dieting clubs but £pound for lb pound it's far cheaper.

    Releases feed from RealWire 2009

  • Results have shown sustained weightloss comparable to dieting clubs but £pound for lb pound it's far cheaper.

    Releases feed from RealWire 2009

  • It's about $35 / pound, available in ½-pound and 1-pound packages. www. justcured.com

    Cincinnati.Com - All Local News 2008

  • The first of them was state assembly member Nathan Fletcher R-San Diego, who recently introduced legislation eliminating the term "pound" from the state's legal vocabulary in favor of "animal shelter."

    SFGate: Top News Stories By Christie Keith 2011

  • The first of them was state assembly member Nathan Fletcher R-San Diego, who recently introduced legislation eliminating the term "pound" from the state's legal vocabulary in favor of "animal shelter."

    SFGate: Top News Stories By Christie Keith 2011

  • But fifty cents a pound is a thousand dollars a ton, and his fifteen hundred pounds had exhausted his emergency fund and left him stranded at the Tantalus point where each day he saw the fresh-whipsawed boats departing for Dawson.

    THE ONE THOUSAND DOZEN 2010

  • The very best kind of cake, in my experience, is the simplest; a richly flavored quatre quarts, what we call pound cake.

    Why Fancy Cakes Can Taste So Crummy 2010

  • But fifty cents a pound is a thousand dollars a ton, and his fifteen hundred pounds had exhausted his emergency fund and left him stranded at the Tantalus point where each day he saw the fresh-whipsawed boats departing for Dawson.

    The One Thousand Dozen 1904

  • Goldstein feels the same way about the word "pound," likening it to a jail, and saying it carries an implication of something being done on the cheap.

    SFGate: Top News Stories By Christie Keith 2011

Comments

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  • Some people are very patient with me:

    Dear bilby,

    > How do I change interface to metric? Pounds are where we keep stray dogs.

    We don't support metric at the moment -- it's on the todo list. Sorry about that.

    Steve S.

    October 28, 2009