Adjacent Words

pommel definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a handgrip that a gymnast uses when performing exercises on a pommel horse
2: handgrip formed by the raised front part of a saddle [syn: pommel, saddlebow]
3: an ornament in the shape of a ball on the hilt of a sword or dagger [syn: knob, pommel] v
1: strike, usually with the fist; "The pedestrians pummeled the demonstrators" [syn: pummel, pommel, biff]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English pomel, from Anglo-French, from Vulgar Latin *pomellum ball, knob, from diminutive of Latin pomum fruit Date: 14th century 1. the knob on the hilt of a sword or saber 2. the protuberance at the front and top of a saddle 3. either of a pair of removable rounded or U-shaped handles used on the top of a pommel horse II. transitive verb (-meled or -melled; -meling or pommelling) Etymology: ¹pommel Date: 1530 pummel

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a knob, esp. at the end of a sword-hilt. 2 the upward projecting front part of a saddle. --v.tr. (pommelled, pommelling; US pommeled, pommeling) = PUMMEL. Phrases and idioms: pommel horse a vaulting horse fitted with a pair of curved handgrips . Etymology: ME f. OF pomel f. Rmc pomellum (unrecorded), dimin. of L pomum fruit, apple

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pommel Pom"mel, n. [OE. pomel, OF. pomel, F. pommeau, LL. pomellus, fr. L. pomum fruit, LL. also, an apple. See Pome.] A knob or ball; an object resembling a ball in form; as: (a) The knob on the hilt of a sword. --Macaulay. (b) The knob or protuberant part of a saddlebow. (c) The top (of the head). --Chaucer. (d) A knob forming the finial of a turret or pavilion.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pommel Pom"mel, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pommeledor Pommelled; p. pr. & vb. n. Pommeling or Pommelling.] To beat soundly, as with the pommel of a sword, or with something knoblike; hence, to beat with the fists. [Written also pummel.]

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(pommels) A pommel is the part of a saddle that rises up at the front, or a knob that is fixed there. N-COUNT

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

pum'-el (2Ch 4:12,13): the Revised Version (British and American) reads "bowl" (which see).

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. [Written also Pummel.] Knob, ball, protuberant part. II. v. a. [Written also Pummel.] Beat, bruise, thrash, flog, bang, maul, thwack, thump, belabor, trounce.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

To beat: originally confined to beating with the hilt of a sword, the knob being, from its similarity to a small apple, called pomelle; in Spanish it is still called the apple of the sword. As the clenched fist likewise somewhat resembles an apple, perhaps that might occasion the term pommelling to be applied to fisty-cuffs.

Moby Thesaurus

bang, baste, bastinado, batter, beat, belabor, bellyband, belt, birch, buffet, cane, cinch, club, cowhide, cudgel, cut, drub, flagellate, flail, flap, flog, fustigate, girt, girth, give a whipping, give the stick, hammer, horn, horsewhip, jockey, knock, knout, lace, lambaste, larrup, lash, lay on, maul, paste, patter, pelt, pistol-whip, pound, pulverize, pummel, rap, rawhide, scourge, sledgehammer, smite, spank, stirrup, strap, stripe, surcingle, swinge, switch, thrash, thresh, thump, trounce, truncheon, wallop, whale, whip, whop