From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpoundpound1 /paʊnd/ ●●● S1 W2 noun 1 weight [countable] (written abbreviation lb)TM a unit for measuring weight, equal to 16 ounces or 0.454 kilogramspound of a pound of apples Moira weighs about 130 pounds. The grapes cost $2 a pound.2 money [countable] (also pound sterling) a) PEC £ the standard unit of money in Britain, which is divided into 100 pence They spent over a thousand pounds. a multi-million pound business a five pound note b) the (British) poundPEC the value of British money compared with the value of the money of other countries The pound was up against the dollar. c) PECthe standard unit of money in various other countries, such as Egypt and the Sudan3 for dogs and cats [countable usually singular]TTCHBP a place where dogs and cats that have been found on the street are kept until their owners come to get them4 for cars [countable]TTCHBP a place where cars that have been illegally parked are kept until their owners pay money to get them back5 → get/take/demand etc your pound of flesh6 telephone [uncountable] American English the pound key
Examples from the Corpus
pound• I've gained 10 pounds since Thanksgiving.• Navel oranges are only 39 cents a pound.• Customers can ask for a pound of bananas, but traders are obliged to weigh them in metric units.• Just 200 extra calories each day add up to one-half pound of extra body fat each week.• The Government gets its pound of flesh, doesn't it.• The council is planning to spend ten million pounds more than government guidelines next year.• Enter your five-digit code, and then press pound.• This often means great economy too, for eliminating draughts and adding insulation will save pounds on energy bills.• A week later a cheque for twenty-five thousand pounds arrived on the churchman's desk.cost ... a pound• A longer pair for waders and which are prevented from slipping down by an elasticated band, cost a pound more.• In Sakhalin, beef cost $ 38 a pound, a luxury he could only afford three times a year.• It's expensive, the habit can cost a thousand pounds a week.• Supercomputing - High-performance computers costing millions of pounds can not be sited at every university that needs their computational power.• Retail cuts differ in cost per pound and preferred methods of cooking as they differ in the wholesale cut of origin.• Under piecework, cost per pound dropped from two-and-a-quarter cents to one-and-a-quarter cents.• The National Rivers Authority says the clear up will take several days and will cost thousands of pounds.poundpound2 ●○○ verb 1 hit [intransitive, transitive]HIT to hit something very hard several times and make a lot of noise, damage it, break it into smaller pieces etc He began pounding the keyboard of his computer.pound against/on Thomas pounded on the door with his fist. Waves pounded against the pier.pound something against/on something Green pounded his fist on the counter.► see thesaurus at hit2 heart [intransitive]HBH if your heart or blood is pounding, your heart is beating very hard and quicklypound with Patrick rushed to the door, his heart pounding with excitement. She ran, her heart pounding in her chest.3 head [intransitive] if your head is pounding, it feels painful, especially because you have a headache or you have been using a lot of effort4 move [intransitive always + adverb/preposition, transitive]RUN to walk or run quickly with heavy loud stepspound along/through/down etc I could hear him pounding up the stairs. a policeman pounding his beat Runners will be pounding the pavement this weekend during the London Marathon.5 attack with bombs [transitive]PMWATTACK to attack a place continuously for a long time with bombs Enemy forces have been pounding the city for over two months. → pound something ↔ out→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
pound• He pounded along the street and round two corners, losing his way.• Her heart was pounding, and she felt sick.• Jessica felt her heart pounding but forced herself to remain calm.• Here the loose earth had been pounded flat by thousands of feet.• Before this defeat, their lowest point was a 25-10 pounding from San Diego on Oct. 5.• A sweeping attack peaked when Greenwood played a one-two with Healey before pounding in for his hat-trick.• He pounded some garlic and ginger and put it in the pan.• Army cannons continued to pound the city from the hillsides.pound against/on• Bill jumped up, pounding on his desk in anger.• As the music pounded on, I pulled Emily this way and that across the baked earth.• The Government have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on imaginative advertising for selling off the country's nationalised industries.• He gasped, he wailed, he threw himself against the bottom of the door and pounded on it.• She pounded on the door, shouted at the top of her voice, and yelled threats at Julius.• He is on the porch already, pounding on the door.• He pounded on the storm door, and waited.pound along/through/down etc• Last week the Prime Minister made it clear there would be no attempt to massage the pound down.• Clinton said as rain pounded down at the air base, where he landed.• Then they set off at a run, Jim and Louise leading the way, Jube pounding along behind them.• He pounded down in me a few dozen times, quickly.• The sweat of moving packs of eighty pounds through the crush of bewildered, nervous men.• He and Kemp pound down the stairway, exchanging words.• He pounded along the street and round two corners, losing his way.• Getting the pound down was what Labour governments did with metronomic regularity.From Longman Business Dictionarypoundpound /paʊnd/ noun [countable]1 written abbreviation £ the standard unit of currency in Britain, which is divided into 100 pencea twenty-pound notea shortfall of millions of pounds2the (British) pound the value of the British currency compared with that of other countriesThe pound climbed strongly against the dollar.3the unit of currency in a number of countries, including Cyprus and Egypt4 written abbreviation lb a unit of weight equal to 16 OUNCEs or 0.454 KILOGRAMsApple prices averaged 24.9 cents a pound.Origin pound1 1. Old English pund, from Latin pondo2. (1400-1500) Perhaps from Old English pund-, found only in compound words pound2 Old English punian 