Definition of "pound"

‘Good-bye, my dear!' said Sleary. 'You'll make your fortun, I hope, and none of our poor folkth will ever trouble you, I'll pound it.’

1854, Dickens, chapter 4, in Hard Times

“He's done,” said the Moocher brutally. “He didn't hear nuffin, I'll pound it.”

1874, Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life, Penguin, published 2009, page 70

Mr. Sarnoff also sent to the pound one of the best-known dogs in the world. Nipper, the black-and-white terrier usually depicted peering with head cocked into the horn of a Victrola, listening for “His Master's Voice,” was de-emphasized as a corporate symbol.

1997 February 24, N. R. Kleinfield, “Robert Sarnoff, 78, RCA Chairman, Dies”, in The New York Times‎

(Police officer to a dog owner) "He'd better stay calm or I'll have the pound come and get him."

2002, 00:27:30 from the start, in 25th Hour

Inspector Douglas Todd: Where did you get a truckload of cigarettes from anyway? / Detective Axel Foley: From the Dearborn Hijacking. / Todd: The Dearborn Hijacking? That bust went down weeks ago. That load's supposed to be in the damn pound!

1984, Beverly Hills Cop, Paramount Pictures

Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.

1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients

When I short haue shorne my sowce face& swigg’d my horny barrell,In an oaken Inne I pound my skinas a suite of guilt apparrell

c. 1620, anonymous, “Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song” in Giles Earle his Booke (British Museum, Additional MSS. 24, 665)

And he who were pleasantly disposed, could not well avoid to liken it to the exploit of that gallant man, who thought to pound up the crows by shutting his park gate.

1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England

She had Lord James' collar in one big fist and she pounded the table with the other and talked a blue streak. Nobody could make out plain what she said, for she was mainly jabbering Swede lingo, but there was English enough, of a kind, to give us some idee.

1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 12, in Mr. Pratt's Patients

[...] and on the Saturday heavy seas pounded the W.R. on its exposed coastal stretch between Dawlish and Teignmouth, loosening the ballast and forcing trains to proceed with extreme caution.

1960 December, “Talking of Trains: The railways and the Devon floods”, in Trains Illustrated, page 709

I pounded on a farmhouse / Lookin' for a place to stay / I was mighty, mighty tired / I had come a long, long way

1964, Bob Dylan (lyrics and music), “Motorpsycho Nitemare”

Pound an onion, warm a spoonful of ghee and throw in the onion, brown it slightly, add your curry stuff, brown this till it smells pleasantly, […]

1887, Indian Cookery "Local" for Young Housekeepers: Second Edition, page 67

It was the hour before the first crowing of the cocks, and along with Nyo Boto and Grandma Yaisa's clattering, the first sound the child heard was the muted, rhythmic bombpabombpabomp of wooden pestles as the other women of the village pounded couscous grain in their mortars, preparing the traditional breakfast of porridge that was cooked in earthen pots over a fire built among three rocks.

1976, Alex Haley, chapter 1, in Roots: The Saga of an American Family

The sounds of a house-party rolled down the street / So we pounded our Pilsner and leapt to our feet

2007, “Fire Marshall Willy”, performed by The Dreadnoughts

It was now about three o’clock in the morning and Francis Macomber, who had been asleep a little while after he had stopped thinking about the lion, wakened and then slept again, woke suddenly, frightened in a dream of the bloody-headed lion standing over him, and listening while his heart pounded, he realized that his wife was not in the other cot in the tent.

1936, Ernest Hemingway, The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber

She acting, so I'm attacking, try break the mattress / Sexy, so I suggested to switch to sideways / Pounded for 'bout a hour she said she tired

2008, Gucci Mane (lyrics and music), “Bachelor Pad”, in The Movie

We pounded along, stopped, landed soldiers; went on, landed custom–house clerks to levy toll in what looked like a God–forsaken wilderness, with a tin shed and a flag–pole lost in it; landed more soldiers—to take care of the custom–house clerks, presumably.

1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], part I