half pound
7
1.0
- noun
- /hæf paʊnd/
:
media libra
- "We need a half pound of shrimp, a dozen bloodworms, and a pound of squid."
Examples
-
Inside the refrigerator was a half pound of bacon.
Fiction book (1995) -
Give me a half-pound of roast beef.
-
In two weeks, she had lost three and a half pounds.
Fiction book (1996) -
Felicia went in and bought a half pound of chocolate.
Fiction book (1997) -
Subjects remained seated and were given a half pound of M&Ms.
Academic text (1991) -
You can, however, still purchase half-pound blocks of the 28-year-old online for a mere $48 through the Cheese Mart's website.
Blog text (25) -
She finally threw together a pot of rice and beans with the last half-pound of cheddar.
Fiction book (2001) -
A half-pound of peel-and-eat white shrimp ($11) is better than any steakhouse shrimp cocktail.
Blog text (29) -
I would like to order a half pound of turkey for my sandwich.
-
The recipe calls for a half pound of cheese to make the dip creamy.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'one half of a pound' is directly and compositionally derived from combining 'half' (one of two equal parts) with 'pound' (a unit of weight). This is a regular, cross-linguistically common numerical/measure construction, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand the MWE.
Etymology
Half pound comes from old shop weighing: shopkeepers often split a full pound into two, so one half was the portion put on the scale. That's why half pound today means 'half of a pound', or 'eight ounces'.