pound (redirected from pound off)

pound, abbr. lb, unit of either mass or force in the customary system of English units of measurement. Two different pounds of mass are defined, one in the avoirdupois system of units and one in the Troy system. The avoirdupois pound (lb avdp) is now defined in terms of the kilogram, the metric unit of mass; 1 lb avdp is equal to 0.45359237 kg. The Troy pound is used only for the measurement of precious metals and is defined as 5760/7000 of the avoirdupois pound. The apothecaries' pound is identical to the Troy pound. As a unit of force, or weight, the pound is the weight that a mass of 1 lb avdp has when the acceleration of gravity has its standard value (9.80665 meters per second per second). In ordinary usage, the term pound is often used without specifying whether force or mass is meant, but for scientific purposes it is important to make this distinction.

---

pound

Unit of weight in the avoirdupois system, the traditional European system of weight (incorporated into the British Imperial system and the U.S. system of weights and measures), equal to 16 oz, 7,000 grains, or 0.4536 kg. It is also a unit of weight in the troy and apothecaries' systems (two other traditional systems of weight), equal to 12 troy or apothecaries' oz, 5,760 grains, or 0.37 kg. Its Roman ancestor, the libra, is the source of the abbreviation lb. The troy pound is used for precious metals, the apothecaries' pound for drugs. The British monetary pound is linked historically with the minting of silver coins (sterlings). Large payments were reckoned in “pounds of sterlings,” later shortened to “pounds sterling.” See also gram; International System of Units; measurement; metric system; ounce.

---

pound¹

1. an avoirdupois unit of weight that is divided into 16 ounces and is equal to 0.453 592 kilograms

2. a troy unit of weight divided into 12 ounces equal to 0.373 242 kilograms

3. an apothecaries' unit of weight, used in the US, that is divided into 5760 grains and is equal to one pound troy

4. a unit of force equal to the mass of 1 pound avoirdupois where the acceleration of free fall is 32.174 feet per second per second

5. 

a. the standard monetary unit of the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, and various UK overseas territories, divided into 100 pence

b. (as modifier): a pound coin

6. the standard monetary unit of the following countries

a. Cyprus: divided into 100 cents

b. Egypt: divided into 100 piastres

c. Lebanon: divided into 100 piastres

d. Syria: divided into 100 piastres

7. another name for lira

8. a former Scottish monetary unit originally worth an English pound but later declining in value to 1 shilling 8 pence

9. the former standard monetary unit of the Republic of Ireland, divided into 100 pence; replaced by the euro in 2002

10. a former monetary unit of the Sudan replaced by the dinar in 1992

---

pound²

an enclosure, esp one maintained by a public authority, for keeping officially removed vehicles or distrained goods or animals, esp stray dogs

---

Pound

Ezra (Loomis). 1885--1972, US poet, translator, and critic, living in Europe. Indicted for treason by the US government (1945) for pro-Fascist broadcasts during World War II, he was committed to a mental hospital until 1958. He was a founder of imagism and championed the early work of such writers as T. S. Eliot, Joyce, and Hemingway. His life work, the Cantos (1925--70), is an unfinished sequence of poems, which incorporates mythological and historical materials in several languages as well as political, economic, and autobiographical elements

---

pound - hash