pond

noun

1. An inland body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is smaller than a lake.

   “But when the moon rose and the breeze awakened, and the sedges stirred, and the cat's-paws raced across the moonlit ponds, and the far surf off Wonder Head intoned the hymn of the four winds, the trinity, earth and sky and water, became one thunderous symphony—a harmony of sound and colour silvered to a monochrome by the moon.”

2. An inland body of standing water of any size that is fed by springs rather than by a river.

name

1. (informal)Chiefly in across the pond: the Atlantic Ocean.

   “I wonder how they do this on the other side of the pond.”

   “I haven’t been back home across the pond in twenty years.”

2. (alt-of)Alternative letter-case form of the pond (“the Atlantic Ocean”).

   “The legendary liner is retiring from transatlantic sailing after 33 years of crossing the Pond between New York and Southampton, England.”

   “The Pond, as it is dismissively known, is certainly in need of a revamp. Its waters have been despoiled and plundered to the brink of disaster – and in the case of the Grand Banks cod fishery, sent over that edge into deathly extinction.”

   “Perhaps it is a reflection of a larger cultural shift. Arguably, the distance between Britain and the United States (please, not the Pond) is as small as it has ever been.”

   “We have the ATLANTIC OCEAN running down the center of our grid today and, on either side of the “Pond,” Mr. Trudeau has managed to symmetrically place the British and American English equivalents for four words.”

3. A surname.

   “"How do you know?" asked Mr Pond rather snappishly and in unusual irritation.”

   “Hi, I’m Max Pond. I’m an active mormon, or member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.”

verb

1. (transitive)To block the flow of water so that it can escape only through evaporation or seepage; to dam.

   “The rate of fall of the surface of water ponded over the soil within the ring gives a measure of the infiltration rate for the particular enclosed area.”

2. (transitive)To make into a pond; to collect, as water, in a pond by damming.
3. (intransitive)To form a pond; to pool.
4. (obsolete, transitive)To ponder.

   “Pleaseth you, pond your suppliant's plaint.”