to pound off
- phrasal verb
- Specialized
:
separar
- They pounded off the lake into smaller sections.
Examples
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Locks are used to pound off parts of a river for maintenance.
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The engineers pounded off sections of the canal to control the water flow.
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After the flood, the team pounded off areas to prevent further damage.
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The workers pounded off the river to create a reservoir.
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The engineers designed the dam to pound off sections of the lake to control the water levels.
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They plan to pound off the area of the river so that each section can be regulated more easily.
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To improve navigation, the city decided to pound off parts of the harbor using new barriers.
Synonyms
47
2.6
To divide something into smaller parts
1
8.8
To divide water into parts to control its flow
1
3.9
To divide a space using a wall or screen
To divide a space with a wall or curtain to make a new area
To make part of a room private by closing a curtain
How Separated
Surface Forms
Morphology
The MWE meaning ('to partition a body of water into compartments') follows directly from the provided constituent senses: 'pound' as to confine/divide water and the particle 'off' signalling separation. This is a straightforward compositional pattern (verb + separative particle) that a learner who knows both constituent meanings can infer.
Etymology
The verb pound off may come from the old word pound, meaning an enclosed space, and the word off, meaning 'separate'. Imagine building a strong barrier, a pound, across a river and closing gates so one part is kept apart from the rest. That's why pound off means to close or 'separate' parts of water with locks or barriers.