ducking-pondn.
a. A pond on which ducks may be hunted or shot.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > hunting > fowling > [noun] > place for catching birds > pond
ducking-pond1608
1608 T. Middleton Familie of Love (new ed.) iv. sig. F You may take your Spaniell and spend some howres at the Duckingpond.
1634 W. Wood New Englands Prospect i. viii. 30 No ducking ponds can affoard more delight than a lame Cormorant, and two or three lusty Dogges.
1664 S. Pepys Diary 27 Mar. (1971) V. 101 Thence walked through the ducking-pond fields.
1870 Observer 13 Nov. Ball's Pond, Islington, takes its name from the Ducking Pond which belonged to a person named Ball, who kept a tavern there in the reign of Charles II.
b. A pond for the ducking of offenders. (The senses cannot always be discriminated.)
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > public or popular punishments > [noun] > stool or ducking-stool > pond for ducking
ducking-pond1625
1625 Sess. Bk. Middlesex in Jrnl. Chester Archæol. Soc. (1861) 6 224 The inhabitants of the parishe of St. James, Clerkenwell, shall erect and place a Cocqueane-Stoole on the side of the ducking ponde.
1765 Universal Mag. 37 54/1 The ducking-pond in Whitechapel.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1897; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
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