pound

College slang: When you pound a beverage, you drink all the remaining liquid in your beverage's container in one go. Trivial for a shot glass. Hard for a red cup. Harder for a stein. Only professionals should try this with a pitcher.

Also a generic measurement term for the weight of paper (used in the United States) that is actually completely and utterly meaningless without a specification for what kind of paper is being referred to. It is the weight (in pounds) of a ream of paper, except that there is (was) a strange standard of what size the sheets of paper in said ream are that relates to how it was convenient to fold the different types of paper.

If you can help it, I suggest using gsm instead of "pounds" to measure the weight of paper because this particular way of measuring the weight of paper was actually invented by insane englishmen that had spent too much time sniffing glue used in book bindings.

The general kinds of pound measurements for paper are:

• pound book paper (the most common if the paper's being processed by a professional print shop)
• pound tag paper
• pound cover paper
• pound index paper
• pound bond paper (the most common if the paper's going into a printer or copier)
• pound blotting paper
• pound blanks paper
• pound postcard paper (same as pound bristol paper -- common weight measurement for cards such as postcards and business cards)
• pound box board

(Credit to Adrian Mariano, author of the GNU units program, where I got much of this information.)

100 gsm ~= 68 pound book (offset) paper ~= 61 pound tag paper ~= 36 pound cover paper ~= 55 pound index paper ~= 27 pound bond paper ~= 32 pound blotting paper ~= 44 pound blanks paper ~= 46 pound postcard paper ~= 20 pound box board ~= a good choice for printing your resume on.

A coin of British currency with the value of one pound sterling.

First launched in 1983 to replace the one pound note, it was suggested by some wags that they should be nicknamed Thatchers after the Prime Minister of the time, on the grounds that they were both thick and brassy. It never caught on.

A pound coin is round, about 3mm thick and 22.5m in diameter, weighing 9.5g. It is a golden colour, with a nickel-brass composition.

Every year, the design on the 'tails' side of the coin is subject to change - the different designs have included emblems representing the Royal Arms, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

Along with the two pound coin, the one pound coin is the only British coin to feature lettering around its edge. This is intended to make the coins harder to forge. It has been estimated that 1% of pound coins in circulation are forgeries.

There are three versions of the lettering which have appeared on different mintings - one each for England, Scotland and Wales. The Northern Irish coins share the English inscription.

• England / Northern Ireland: "DECUS ET TUTAMEN" - Latin for "An ornament and a safeguard", originally seen on 17th century coins to prevent people clipping the edges.
• Scotland: "NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT" - Latin for "No-one provokes me with impunity", the Order of the Thistle's motto.
• Wales: "PLEIDIOL WYF I'M GWLAD " - Welsh for "True I am to my country" from the Welsh national anthem.

Pound (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pounded; p. pr. & vb. n. Pounding.] [OE. pounen, AS. punian to bruise. Cf. Pun a play on words.]

1.

To strike repeatedly with some heavy instrument; to beat.

With cruel blows she pounds her blubbered cheeks. Dryden.

2.

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.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Pound, v. i.

1.

To strike heavy blows; to beat.

2. Mach.

To make a jarring noise, as in running; as, the engine pounds.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Pound, n. [AS. pund an inclosure: cf. forpyndan to turn away, or to repress, also Icel. pynda to extort, torment, Ir. pont, pond, pound. Cf. Pinder, Pinfold, Pin to inclose, Pond.]

1.

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.

Shak.

2.

A level stretch in a canal between locks.

3. 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.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Pound, v. t.

To confine in, or as in, a pound; to impound.

Milton.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Pound, n; pl. Pounds (#), collectively Pound pr Pounds. [AS. pund, fr. L. pondo, akin to pondus a weight, pendere top weigh. See Pendant.]

1.

A certain specified weight; especially, a legal standard consisting of an established number of ounces.

⇒ 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. 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.

2.

A British denomination of money of account, equivalent to twenty shillings sterling, and equal in value to about $4.86. There is no coin known by this name, but the gold sovereign is of the same value.

⇒ 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.

Peacham.

 

© Webster 1913.