POUND • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • 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

... Bessy, glad to be moving; and when Mrs. Goodriche had looked at the book, she found that Bessy had turned over two leaves,—that Tommy had once eaten a whole pound-cake in a very short time, and that he had cried the whole of the evening for the real moon ...

— The Fairchild Family • Mary Martha Sherwood

... it isn't fair, as I said before," cried the first speaker. "He could do what he liked with our bowling before, but now we have got to run nearly off our legs to fetch up fivers. I say it isn't fair. He must have got half-a-pound of lead let into the end of his bat. Took it down to the carpenter's, he did, and made old Gluepot bore three holes in the bottom with a centre-bit, pour in a lot of melted lead, and then plug the ...

— Glyn Severn's Schooldays • George Manville Fenn

... with them, so at the last moment Ben Gile seized the line, and out came a two-pound trout. Jimmie's eyes were popping nearly out of his head, and Betty was jumping about ...

— Little Busybodies - The Life of Crickets, Ants, Bees, Beetles, and Other Busybodies • Jeanette Augustus Marks and Julia Moody

... la libra: Two shillings a pound. Cinco pesetas el metro or por metro: 5 pesetas ...

— Pitman's Commercial Spanish Grammar (2nd ed.) • C. A. Toledano

... be limited, the income of this country should be called on to contribute a certain sum for the purpose of remedying this mighty and growing evil, ... should bear a charge not exceeding 7d. in the pound, which will not amount to 3 per cent, but, speaking accurately, L.2, 18s. 4d. per cent—for the purpose of not only supplying the deficiency in the revenue, but of enabling us, with confidence and satisfaction, to propose great commercial reforms, which will ...

— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327 - Vol. 53, January, 1843 • Various

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