## Meanings
1. A unit of weight equal to about 454 grams (16 ounces).
2. To hit something hard and repeatedly.
3. To crush something into small pieces by beating it.
4. A place where stray animals are kept until they are claimed.

## Examples
- The recipe calls for two pounds of flour.
- He pounded on the door until someone answered.
- She pounded the spices into a fine powder.
- They adopted a dog from the local pound.

## Synonyms
- buffet

## Derived Forms
- foot-pound
- foot-pound-second
- full-pound
- geepound
- half-pound
- impound
- kilopound
- multipound
- petropound
- pinfold
- pound-foolish
- pound-for-pound

## Related Forms
- bang

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *(s)pend-
- Root: pound
- Root: pund
- Root: *pund
- Root: *pundą
- Root: pondō

## Etymology
From Middle English pound, from Old English pund (“a pound, weight”), from Proto-West Germanic *pund, from Proto-Germanic *pundą (“pound, weight”), an early borrowing from Latin pondō (“by weight”), ablative form of pondus (“weight”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- (“to pull, stretch”). Cognate with Dutch pond, German Pfund, Danish pund and Swedish pund. Doublet of funt, pfund, pood, and punt.

## AI Etymology
Pound comes from Middle English pound, from Old English pund (“a pound, weight”), from Proto-West Germanic *pund, from Proto-Germanic *pundą (“pound, weight”), an early borrowing from Latin pondō (“by weight”), ablative form of pondus (“weight”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- (“to pull, stretch”). Cognate with Dutch pond, German Pfund, Danish pund and Swedish pund. Doublet of funt, pfund, pood, and punt. In present-day English it covers a unit of weight equal to about 454 grams (16 ounces), to hit something hard and repeatedly, and to crush something into small pieces by beating it. The wider family includes derived forms such as foot-pound, foot-pound-second, full-pound, geepound, half-pound and related forms such as bang.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Mathematics & Measurement

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