POUND • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Pound

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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

... for the hand-painted china sugar bowl that was part of a set that Aunt Kate had won at a fair. She set the blue tile that she had given Aunt Kate on a long-ago Christmas where the brown Rebecca teapot would stand, and cut a square slice of butter from the end of the new pound for the blue glass dish. And all the time her heart was bursting with grief and discontent, and she was beginning to realize for the first time the irrevocable quality of the step she had taken, and just how completely it had shut her off from the ...

— The Beloved Woman • Kathleen Norris

... approved March 3, 1875, almost all matter, whether properly mail matter or not, may be sent any distance through the mails, in packages not exceeding 4 pounds in weight, for the sum of 16 cents per pound. So far as the transmission of real mail matter goes, this would seem entirely proper; but I suggest that the law be so amended as to exclude from the mails merchandise of all descriptions, and limit this transportation to articles enumerated, ...

— State of the Union Addresses of Ulysses S. Grant • Ulysses S. Grant

... said Sir Morton quietly. "You and your men can refresh yourselves in the hall, and when you start on your way, I will give you a pound or two to ...

— The Black Tor - A Tale of the Reign of James the First • George Manville Fenn

... a few instances to 550 pounds. When the crop was picked and ginned, we had twelve hundred bales of fine cotton. The quality of the fibre in the whole lot, was so excellent and so uniformly well ripened, that we were offered two cents per pound above the ruling price of ordinary cotton. As a result, this one crop gave the farm a cash income of $65,000. $60,000 for the fibre, and $5,000 for the seed, oil and oil cake. Choice seed for planting, was a large item in ...

— Solaris Farm - A Story of the Twentieth Century • Milan C. Edson

... "Don't be stupid, Cleo!" she cried. "What do you suppose 'natural' means nowadays? Has it any meaning at all? Is it natural for you to blow your nose in a lace handkerchief? Is it natural for you to do your hair up? Is it natural for you to eat marrons glaces as you do at the rate of a pound and a half a week,—yes, a pound and a half a week; I buy them so I ought to know, unless the servants get at them—when you ought to be living in a cave, dressed in bearskins and gnawing at the roots of trees? Don't talk to me about 'natural.' Nothing is natural nowadays, except perhaps ...

— Too Old for Dolls - A Novel • Anthony Mario Ludovici

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