Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a parson.

1834		Albany Microscope (NY) 17 May n.p.: ‘In other words, Dr Poundtext, you are — ’ ‘What am I, sir?’ said the parson.
1865		W.B. Rands Henry Holbeach 45: [...] the vicar, Dr Poundtext.
1882		Grantham Jrnl 18 Mar. 7/1: ‘I would not advise you to go up. The case is a most infectious one.’ Deacon’s Wife: ‘Oh pray do not, dear Mr Poundtext’.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 917/1: C.18–late 19.

(US) a euph. for go to hell! under hell n.

1975		Sepe & Telano Cop Team 114: ‘You know they won’t serve firewater to injuns.’ ‘Go pound salt,’ Telano grunted.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 47: Secure enough to tell Reynaldo Flemm to go pound salt every time he put the make on her.

see under cotton n.

(US) to work as a telegraph operator.

1878		Salt River Herald (Phoenix, AZ) 18 May 3/2: Two of the [...] boys in town were located at the stage office, pounding brass.
1888		Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 28 Oct. 14/5: I [...] have been ‘pounding brass’ ever since.
1896		Anaconda Standard (MT) 5 Aug. 3/2: I was a night telegraph operator [...] ‘Pound’ we used to call sleep in those days, because we stopped ‘pounding brass’ to pound our ears.
1912		Van Loan ‘Little Sunset’ in Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 79: Jonesey was still ‘pounding brass’ in the same office.
1922		Eve. Public Ledger (Phila., PA) 4 Mar. 22/4: Telegraph Operator [...] Isiah D. Maize, 80 years old, is still ‘pounding brass’ for the Western Union.

(US) to greet or otherwise acknowledge by tapping knuckles.

2012

M. Lacher On the Bro’d 53: [H]igh-fiving and pounding knucks over everything.

(orig. US) to masturbate.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1988		‘Victoria Parker’ Incest Schoolgirls 🌐 Her hot uncle heaved up off the bed as he pounded off to Jilly’s cute picture.

see also under relevant nouns.

(US) to sleep; thus ear-pounding n.

[1672		J. Phillips Maronides (1678) V 126: Quo he, Ile go consult my pillow].
1885		Ledger (Noblesville, IN) 14 Aug. 6/2: ‘I “pounded my ear” all night’.
1895		J. London ‘And ’Frisco Kid Came Back’ in High School Aegis X (4 Nov.) 2–4: I’d pound me ear an’ snore.
1900		A.H. Lewis ‘Red Mike’ in Sandburrs 59: He rolls in to pound his ear.
1913		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 66: She’ll be pounding her ear on the haypile in a few minutes.
1919		K.H. Day Camion Cartoons [caption in letter] 🌐 G-o-s-h kid, I sure was pounding my ear!
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 38: Floppin’s, huh? Then I guess we’ll pound our ear.
1931		O. Strange Law O’ The Lariat 38: Now, go pound yore ear, little fat fella.
1937		T. Thursday ‘Good Luck is No Good’ in Federal Agent Nov. 🌐 Before I hit the flop that night to do some earpounding I wind my watch.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Butch Minds the Baby’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 346: John is still pounding his ear.
1944		C.B. Davis Rebellion of Leo McGuire (1953) 20: The big kids [...] would sneak a half hour or so pounding the ear.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 47: I been pounding my ear.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 162/2: Pound the bell or ear. To sleep.
1952		(con. 1920s) ‘Harry Grey’ Hoods (1953) 79: Let’s all of us pack in and pound the pillow.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 813: pound the ear – To sleep.
1970		‘Troy Conway’ Cunning Linguist (1973) 56: The drone of jets, the smoothness of the flight, the brilliance of the sun - and I was pounding my ear in no time at all.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 53: Then I’d go to sleep and pound my ear until Bert roused me for chow.

(US) to be reasonably intelligent; usu. in phr. not enough sense to pound sand in a rat hole.

1882		Witchita City Eagle (KS) 30 Mar. 2: We farmers may not be able to understand how the universe is governed [...] or to pound sand in a rathole.
1889		St. John’s Herald (Apache Co., AZ) 7 Mar. 2/4: A few chumps accidentally get into the legislature who are not gifted with sufficient sense to pound sand into a rat-hole.
1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 14: pound sand, not to know enough to To be hopelessly stupid. ‘He can’t help us, for he doesn’t know enough to pound sand.’.
1899		Ade Fables in Sl. (1902) 154: Somebody that wasn’t afraid to Work, and had Gumption enough to pound Sand into a Rat-Hole.
1903		Coconino Sun (Flagstaff, AZ) 6 June 1/1: Some of the Sun’s employees really do enough to pound sand in a rathole (when the directions are on the handle).
1910		Marion Dly Mirror (OH) 12 Apr. 4/1: Litle Nick longworth with about braisn enough to pound sand down a rat-hole.
1916		Mt Vernon Signal (KY) 16 June 3/5: Pounding sand into a rathole seems an easy task compared with keeping the Culebra free of slides.
1922		Lyden Tribute (WA) 24 Aug. 9/4: Most voters don’t know enough to pound sand in a rat-hole.
1939		E. O’Brien One Way Ticket 75: You could teach him more’n you know, and he still wouldn’t know enough to pound sand in a rat hole.
1966		M. Rumaker Exit 3 and Other Stories 112: You go pound sand, you goddamned leech!
1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 36: Them crazy Farm Administration cocksuckers ain’t got sense enough to pound sand in a rat hole!
2008		D.R. Pollock ‘Holler’ in Knockemstiff 156: ‘That girl [...] She don’t have the sense to pound sand down a rat hole’.

(US) to suffer.

c.1935		Chris Crusty [comic] ‘H°ya honey.’ ‘Aw go pound sand up yer ass!!’.
1945		H.B. Darrach Jr. ‘Sticktown Nocturne’ in Baltimore Sun (MD) 12 Aug. A-1/4: ‘I been tru hell,’ he sobbed. ‘Go pound sand!’ Mooney yelled.
1974		G.V. Higgins Cogan’s Trade (1975) 14: I was pounding sand up my ass almost four years.
2014		D.B. Flowers Bangs 167: Jerry and Tommy denied having anything to do with the robbery and told the Mafia associate to go pound sand up his ass.
2015		New Yorker 18 May 🌐 Screw the independent bookstores [...] There weren’t any near where I grew up. There were only ones in college towns. The rest of us could go pound sand.
2024		Twitter/X 18 Sept. 🌐 Israel is here to stay and the whiners can go pound sand.

(W.I.) to denigrate someone, to criticize someone behind their back.

1996

Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage.

see also under relevant nouns.

(US teen) to dance.

1960

Baltimore Sun (MD) Sun. Mag. 4 Dec. 9/1: Twitter MacAfee was the smart play of Blight Area 12, but although she pounded some ground at most of the blasts with Bugsy, the kook always blew the pad with a grub.

(US campus) to have sexual intercourse.

1979		(con. 1949) J. Hurling Boomers 180: You sure as hell won’t be sleeping much [...] You’ll be pounding the springs till you eyes fall out.
1968		(con. 1940s) G. Dutton Andy 53: He’s got a sheila. [...] But think what a dry-arsed bitch she must be to be pounding the mattress with a dead weight like Dumsday.
1987		Eble Campus Sl. Fall.

1. (US Und., also pound the blocks, promenade the pavement, walk the pavement, ...pave, trudge the street) to work as a street prostitute; thus pavement-pounding adj., street-walking; thus pavement pounder under pavement n.

c.1800		Song No. 13 Papers of Francis Place (1819) n.p.: Near to Temple bar, liv’d two trading women [...] Now we trudge the streets / We’re glad of half a shilling.
1834		‘I Am A Blowen Togg’d Out So Gay’ in Flare-Up Songster 16: I never goes one fadge under my price [...] On my own bottom I walks the pave.
1836		‘A Blowen in a Alley Pigg’d’ in Comic Songster and Gentleman’s Private Cabinet 34: A randy blowen truly; / Who walk’d the pave so gally rigg’d.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY)1 Oct. n.p.: Is she going to promenade the pavement in future .
1923		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 129: See him passing to the Commons, / Making laws for rich and pore. / See her walking of [sic] the pyvements, / Nothing but a bloody whore.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Pounding the pavement, a prostitute soliciting men on the street.
1938		M. Rand ‘Clip-Joint Chisellers’ in Ten Story Gang Aug. 🌐 He was giving all the hardworking, pavement-pounding chippies hell.
1939		D. Maurer ‘Prostitutes and Criminal Argots’ in Lang. Und. (1981) 116/2: To pound the pavement or To pound the blocks. To solicit as a streetwalker.
1963		‘Geoffrey Tolhurst’ Flat 4 King’s Cross (1966) 118: ‘I’m not suggesting you start pounding the pavement,’ said Sammy, looking a little hurt.
1977		J. Sayles Union Dues (1978) 152: ‘She’s just a hooker. Why you want to lean on her like that?’ ‘She’s protecting that black motherfucker Slick is why. Out pounding the pavement so’s he can flash that smile of his at us.’.

2. (US, also pound the asphalt, ...streets) to walk the streets, esp. in search of a job.

1901		‘Hugh McHugh’ John Henry 45: When he’s not pounding the pave [...] he’s acting as second assistant engineer in a pool room.
1909		‘O. Henry’ Options (1916) 30: I’m pounding the asphalt for another job [DA].
1910		Dly Press (Newport, VA) 16 Mar. 7/1: A constant heel-and-toe marathon [...] with no purpose but to the wear down shoe soles by pounding the pavement.
1920		Wash. Times (DC) 24 Nov. 12/6: I’m in training [...] I’ve got to be out pounding the asphalt in Central Park at 5 o’clock in the morning.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 160: Pounding the pavements a little now and then.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 538: I sure pounded the pavements in the Loop looking for a job.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1969		N. Spinrad Bug Jack Barron 30: You and me [...] would be out pounding the pavement tomorrow.
1976		D. Hall Dock Ellis 128: I used to pound the pavement. Just out having fun.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 69: Next morning I got up early, ate breakfast, then pounded the streets looking for a pearl-diving job.
1993		I.L. Allen City in Sl. (1995) 40: To enter on the street and to walk on the sidewalk, especially when looking for something to do, in the logic of slang, is [...] to pound, or to beat the bricks, the pavement, or sometimes the macadam.

3. (also pound sidewalks) of a police officer, to walk the streets.

1901		Eve. Star (DC) 20 Apr. 26/5: Let th’ young fellers pound the’ pavement.
1906		A.H. Lewis Confessions of a Detective 13: You’ll be pounding the pavement with a nightstick inside of thirty days.
1910		Tacoma Times (WA) 6 Aug. 2/3: World famous athletes [...] have been ordered to ‘pound the pavement,’ the same as policemen.
1917		Wash. Times (DC) 17 May 12/2: The officer who does his asphalt pounding from the First precinct station thought he had discovered buried treasure.
1920		N.Y. Tribune 4 Dec. 1/5: The uniformed policemen, the men who ‘pound the pavement’ every day or night.
1922		Wash. Times (DC) 22 Nov. 19/4: Four stories below, pounding the pavement with his size 12 shoes, was Officer O’Toole.
1925		Black Mask Aug. III 16: I [...] nod to the ferret-eyed dick who’s pounding the pavement.
1930		M. Fiaschetti You Gotta Be Rough 28: That little bit of instruction [. . .] came during those weeks when I was a harness bull pounding a beat out in the wilds of Williamsburg.
1937		J. Curtis You’re in the Racket, Too 246: Got a bit browned off with pounding the pavement.
1943		R. Brister ‘Rock-a-Bye Booby’ in Ten Detective Aces Sept. 🌐 You want to pound pavements the rest of your life?
1946		C.S. Montanye ‘Opals Are Unlucky’ in Thrilling Detective Jan. 🌐 McClain [...] didn’t like to be called ‘officer’ because it reminded him too much of his pavement pounding days.

4. (US drugs) to search for drugs, which can often require hours of walking.

1993

I.L. Allen City in Sl. (1995) 38: Pounding the pavement is the relentless search for drugs.

(US) to travel by train, esp. as a hobo.

1884		C.F. Lummis letter 15 Sept. in Byrkit Letters from the Southwest (1989) 5: Here I took the O. & M. track, and began ‘pounding the ties’ westward.
1888		Abilene Reflector (MN) 7 Apr. 11/3: When last seen he was pounding ties for Junction.
1912		Eve. Bulletin (Honolulu) 30 Apr. 10/3: Fortunately [...] they had a generous bank roll to start in with, else they would now be pounding the ties.
1919		Van Loan ‘Piute vs. Piute’ in Score by Innings (2004) 306: We arrived in the morning, after pounding the rails all night in the freight caboose.
1922		Lake Co. Times (Hammond, IN) 27 Mar. 4/4: ‘Business is rotten,’ said Holdup Ben [...] ‘Fake oil salesmen are pounding the ties’.

see beat the shit out of v.