POUNDING Synonyms: 278 Similar and Opposite Words

pounding 1 of 2

noun

as in hammering

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pounding

2 of 2

verb

present participle of pound

as in shuffling

to move heavily or clumsily pounding down the road as fast as he could run

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in banging

to deliver a blow to (someone or something) usually in a strong vigorous manner pounding nails into boards all day long

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as in licking

to strike repeatedly during the storm the waves furiously pounded the beach

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as in drawing

to shape with a hammer pounding out a depression in the metal

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as in grinding

to reduce to fine particles the tablet may be pounded and mixed in with the animal's food

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of pounding

Noun

Rucking targets both at once without the joint pounding of running or the recovery debt of hard gym sessions. — Samantha Agate, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 1 July 2026 Rutted migration routes, carved by the constant pounding of animal hooves, littered northern Pennsylvania. — Literary Hub, 10 June 2026 But perhaps the constant pounding was just too much for the pier, built in 1973. — John Ramos, CBS News, 7 June 2026 Most of those killed died during the second pounding. — Miami Herald Archives, Miami Herald, 3 June 2026 Another popular belief is that the pounding of the raindrops on the ground mimics the sound of moles hunting for food, and the worms flee to escape being on the mole’s menu. — Joan Morris, Mercury News, 27 Apr. 2026 Russia’s relentless pounding of urban areas behind the front line following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago has killed thousands of civilians. — Serra Yedikardes, Los Angeles Times, 5 Apr. 2026 However, while chemically the same, beach sand is made up of tiny crystals of quartz that have been pulverized by geological weathering and the pounding of ocean waves. — John Ballato, The Conversation, 24 Mar. 2026 This section of shoreline is lined with cliffs, below which are sea caves, formed over centuries by the relentless pounding of Lake Superior waves. — Stephanie Pearson, Outside, 19 Feb. 2026

Verb

Groups of young people were seen dancing with music pounding through the crowd as meters away tear gas billowed into the air. — Joseph Ataman, CNN Money, 24 Oct. 2026 At the moment, the good detective is strutting around the float, kicking the wheels and pounding the floorboards. — Danielle Parker, CBS News, 21 Oct. 2026 When Louise would remember the show decades later, the audience was always so electric that the room exploded into stamping feet and pounding fists. — Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune, 18 Oct. 2026 You were expected, at the very least, to put up a good fight, and the dance could get real ugly real quick—I’ve witnessed aunties and uncles pounding their fists on the table in a yelling war and checks being ripped straight down the middle. — Literary Hub, 16 Oct. 2026 Heavy alcohol intake can lead to some degree of dehydration and a pounding headache in the morning. — Sheah Rarback, Miami Herald, 14 Oct. 2026 The New York native and LaGuardia grad still remembers his days pounding the pavement on the open-mic circuit. — Chris Murphy, Vanity Fair, 14 Oct. 2026 Anyone who has seen the heart-pounding trailer of Whalefall, which follows a scuba diver being swallowed whole by a giant sperm whale, would probably not see said whale as the film’s hero. — Kirsten Chuba, HollywoodReporter, 14 Oct. 2026 With that much pulse-pounding, fight-or-flight-revving goodness, maybe there should be a law. — Sara Netzley, Entertainment Weekly, 11 Oct. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for pounding

Noun

The butt of the Axvant is designed to double as a mallet, mostly for knocking in tent stakes and taking care of other basic, non-precision hammering.

— New Atlas, New Atlas, 28 Sep. 2026
Coastal flooding and hammering winds are already underway from North Carolina and Virginia to New Jersey, the start of a dayslong coastal flood and erosion threat that will extend into New England as the storm ramps up.

— Mary Gilbert, CNN Money, 24 Sep. 2026

Definition of hammering

Verb

The Current traded away some assets while shuffling stars like Michelle Cooper, Temwa Chawinga and Lorena in and out of the lineup.

— PJ Green, Kansas City Star, 24 Oct. 2026
And for a quarterback whose superpower involves shuffling through collapsing pockets, scrambling through squalor, throwing off any and every platform — such a question was warranted.

— Alex Zietlow, Charlotte Observer, 21 Oct. 2026

Definition of shuffling

Verb

At first, there doesn’t seem to be much of a connection between the colorful, family-friendly world of Pokémon and the loud, head-banging techno genre.

— Jordan Moreau, Variety, 25 Oct. 2026
Written by John Hughes, this tale about best pals Andie (Molly Ringwald) and Duckie (Jon Cryer) unfolds to a banging soundtrack and boasts a handful of scenes that remain generational signatures.

— Sezin Devi Koehler, Entertainment Weekly, 24 Oct. 2026

Definition of banging

Verb

Which is funny, because the cat-cow’s here in Crap Central with us, licking something off Carl’s boot.

— George Saunders, New Yorker, 18 Oct. 2026
Teams have to be licking their chops after seeing what Tampa Bay did to Dallas last Thursday night, especially considering the defense (or lack thereof) that the Cowboys have shown through five weeks.

— Jonathan Rubin, Charlotte Observer, 14 Oct. 2026

Definition of licking

Verb

Casual, wide-leg styles also prevailed here, and tonal floral embroidery adorned some styles up the side of the leg, drawing the eye in without creating distraction.

— Kate Nishimura, Footwear News, 26 Oct. 2026
Talarico also stated his opposition to transgender student-athletes competing in girls’ sports in a Fox News interview in September, drawing progressive criticism.

— Emma Specter, Vogue, 26 Oct. 2026

Definition of drawing

Verb

For decades, junior accountants learned their trade by reconciling accounts, manually entering data, and grinding through the month-end close.

— Sam Birchall, Fortune, 23 Oct. 2026
This innovation—the mass manufacture of ammonia, vastly more efficient than scraping guano off remote islands or grinding mountains of bison bones—removed the most critical nutrient bottleneck in global agriculture.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of grinding

Noun

Higher still, Kerr led me up a steep groove that demanded such vicious thrashing and groveling that my whole body hurt.

— Daniel Duane, New York Times, 14 Oct. 2026
The world’s richest person, MAGA donor, chainsaw waver, baby daddy and would-be Mars colonizer takes a thrashing.

— Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 9 Oct. 2026

Definition of thrashing

Verb

But wrap a play in too much homespun folksiness and the thing starts to feel both suffocating and, despite all the driving tunes and stomping choreography in the world, suffocated.

— Sara Holdren, Vulture, 22 Oct. 2026
The answer isn’t between stomping the gas pedal or leaving the car parked.

— Bob Ackerman, Forbes.com, 6 Oct. 2026