pommel
Americannoun
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a knob, as on the hilt of a sword.
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the protuberant part at the front and top of a saddle.
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Architecture. a spherical ornament or finial.
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Gymnastics. either of the two curved handles on the top surface of a side horse.
verb (used with object)
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pommels,
present (3rd person singular)
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pommeled,
past participle, past
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pommelled,
past participle, past (especially British)
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pommeling,
present participle
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pommelling
present participle (especially British)
noun
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the raised part on the front of a saddle
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a knob at the top of a sword or similar weapon
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pommelsimple
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pommelssimple
-
have pommeledperfect
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have pommelledperfect
-
has pommeledperfect
-
has pommelledperfect
-
am pommelingprogressive
-
am pommellingprogressive
-
are pommelingprogressive
-
are pommellingprogressive
-
is pommelingprogressive
-
is pommellingprogressive
-
have been pommelingperfect progressive
-
have been pommellingperfect progressive
-
has been pommelingperfect progressive
-
has been pommellingperfect progressive
Past
-
pommeledsimple
-
pommelledsimple
-
had pommeledperfect
-
had pommelledperfect
-
was pommelingprogressive
-
was pommellingprogressive
-
were pommelingprogressive
-
were pommellingprogressive
-
had been pommelingperfect progressive
-
had been pommellingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pommel
1300–50; (noun) Middle English pomel < Middle French, derivative of Old French pom hilt of a sword < Latin pōmum fruit; see pome, -elle
Explanation
A pommel is the rounded knob on a horse's saddle that a rider grips with one hand. The raised front of the saddle itself can also be called a pommel. Some saddles, particularly the modern western type, have a metal grip at the front, known either as a horn or a pommel. Other saddles don't have this knob, but instead have a raised front edge that's also called the pommel. When pommel is used as a verb, it means "beat or strike repeatedly," a variation on the word pummel. The Old French root is pomel, "rounded knob," from the Latin word pomum, or "apple."
Vocabulary lists containing pommel
Horsin' Around
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Vocabulary of the Summer Olympics
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Maniac Magee
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Men's pommel horse final: The Arena on Monday, 27 July.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
A European, World, Commonwealth and Olympic champion on the pommel horse, he is undeniably one of the sport's greats, but we've been warned to expect 'Rhys 2.0' in Glasgow.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
Nedoroscik brought his pommel horse skills to Thursday’s announcement, balancing on his hands on a mat as he swung his legs around his body — in dress pants, no less.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2024
Then Nedoroscik performed a near-flawless pommel horse routine that helped Team USA secure the bronze, the United States men’s first Olympic medal since 2008.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2024
The captain rose and drummed the pommel of his sword before calling to a servant as Celaena walked into her bedroom.
From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas
In the team finals however, a nightmarish set on pommels sent the Americans tumbling to fifth.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 25, 2023
Hilts and pommels were and are the most common decoration, for dragonglass is too brittle to make a useful crossguard.
From Time ● Jul. 17, 2017
The 1996 Olympic pommel horse champion Donghua Li performed a surprisingly moving routine to pommels attached to the balance beam.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2016
The 7th Century hoard of 1,600 items including sword pommels, helmet parts and processional crosses was valued at £3.285m.
From BBC ● Jan. 2, 2015
They hand their burdens to others while they mount, then take the sacks again and loop them over the pommels of their saddles.
From "Tiger, Tiger" by Lynne Reid Banks
Illinois pommeled Northwestern, 7-6; Minnesota bewildered Iowa, 38-0.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the attempt, My Philadelphia Father got pommeled and knocked about like one of Biddle's sparring partners, and Biddle himself at times got kept out of sight in his corner.
From Time Magazine Archive
Then, indeed, they separated, thoroughly pommeled and frightened.
From Peter the Priest by Mór Jókai
And after I had pommeled off the two pounds she'd gained at a twelve-course dinner the night before, she begins to tell me of her charities.
From The Shadow by Mary White Ovington
The workmen, seeing the reinforcements, beat a retreat, carrying their sadly pommeled comrades with them, but their insulting language was not restricted until they had passed out of hearing.
From Aunt Jane's Nieces on Vacation by L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum
The Loco-Focos, thus hemmed in between two fires, were gloriously pommelled for about five minutes.
From The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 3, March, 1852 by Various
He settled the arms of the see—gules, a sword erect in pale argent, pommelled and hilted or, surmounted with two keys in saltire of the last.
From Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Exeter A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See by Percy Addleshaw
He stirred and pommelled the Mulgars with his pole.
From The Three Mulla-mulgars by Walter De la Mare
All the more reason for bringing the undertaking to a swift conclusion: wherefore I pommelled and spurred my hapless steed along with a ruthlessness of which at any other time I should be heartily ashamed.
From A Veldt Vendetta by Bertram Mitford
A man is apt to think that his insurance is settled and done with, when he has been pommelled about by the doctors and approved by the board.
From Birds of Prey by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon
Old friends and allies did their best to save Britain this final pommeling.
From Time Magazine Archive
Charity rewarded his chivalrous pommeling of Cheever by asking him never to come near her again.
From We Can't Have Everything by Rupert Hughes
"A generous fellow plays for the play, a sordid one for the stake; an old fogy sits by and smokes the pipe of tranquillity, while Jack and Tom are pommeling each other in the ring."
From The History of Pendennis, Volume 2 His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy by William Makepeace Thackeray
He caught the subway with the crowd of stockbrokers who came romping out of the stock exchange like released schoolboys after the day's tension, pommeling and shoving each other with released glee.
From Making Money by Owen Johnson
“In my castle,” says Joinville, “whosoever uses bad language receives a good pommeling, and this has nearly put down that bad habit.”
From Chips From A German Workshop. Vol. III. Essays on Literature, Biography, and Antiquities by F. Max (Friedrich Max) Müller
They shook Roy into consciousness with joyous riot, pommelling him with affectionate roughness till he rose and joined with them stiffly.
From The Spoilers by Rex Ellingwood Beach
“He's afraid,” said the boy who had advised the more severe pommelling, “old 'fraid-cat!”
From Five Little Peppers at School by Hermann Heyer
The beginning of my Roman history was spent in the asylum, or conversing in Egeria's hallowed grove; not in thumping and pommelling king Amulius's herdsmen.
From The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 1 by Peter Cunningham
Why," said Phil, "I couldn't believe my eyes at first; but true it was, all the same,—there was our gentle 'rosebud' pommelling away at a fellow nearly twice his size!
From We Ten Or, The Story of the Roses by Barbara Yechton
Dick was stunned for a moment, and lay quite still, so the deer left off pommelling him, and stood looking at him.
From The Dog Crusoe and his Master by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
