pond
/pɒnd
/noun
1A small body of still water formed naturally or by artificial means: a garden pond...
- Projecting eaves and bamboo verandahs shaped views of gardens with ponds, streams and artificial hills.
- Lakes show a great range in size and depth, from small local ponds to bodies of water covering thousands of square kilometres.
- Most wash their clothes and their bodies in nearby ponds or at community water taps.
Synonyms
pool, puddle, lake, tarn, reservoir, waterhole, lagoon, inland sea, swim;
British stew;
Scottish loch, lochan;
Anglo-Irish lough;
North American pothole, bayou, tank;
New Zealand moana
literary mere, plash
1.1 (the pond) humorous The Atlantic Ocean: he’s relatively unknown on this side of the pond...
- On the other side of the pond, the Atlantic sturgeon is better documented.
- This is his debut album, recently released this side of the pond, and although it is a raw, slightly patchy affair, after a few plays it weaves its intimate spell.
- A critical hit on both sides of the pond, it's a noir detective story starring Lionel Essrog, a detective with Tourette's Syndrome.
verb [with object]
1Hold back or dam up (flowing water or another liquid) to form a pond: the lava can’t flow away and gets ponded up in the crater...
- Completely collapsed ponds were areas where the remnants of a dam were still present and water was partially ponded behind the dam, but at least part of the dam was fully breached and water was freely flowing through the breached area.
- Short-lived saline lakes or playas are particularly common at the margins of many deserts, where waters from flash floods become ponded up, but evaporate away in time.
- Once the gas-saturated magma is ponded and retained in a holding reservoir, it will cool and crystallize, causing further degassing.
1.1 [no object] (Of flowing water or other liquids) form a pond: water should never be allowed to pond on your property...
- The septic inspection disclosed no problem with the tank itself and suggested that the water ponding in the mantle area could be caused by excessive water consumption in the house.
- The IB Roof system I prefer is manufactured with copolymer alloys and offers a lifetime warranty against leakage and water ponding.
- Reduced infiltration will cause water ponding for longer periods following rainfall on a field with surface depressions.
Origin
Middle English: alteration of pound3, commonly used in dialect in the same sense.