pound the pavement, Informal. to walk the streets in order to accomplish something: If you're going to find work you'd better start pounding the pavement.
Origin of pavement
1250–1300;Middle English < Old French < Latinpavīmentum. See pave, -ment
Related formspave·men·tal[peyv-men-tl]/peɪvˈmɛn tl/, adjectivepre·pave·ment, nounsub·pave·ment, noun
mid-13c., from Old French pavement "roadway, pathway; paving stone" (12c.) and directly from Latin pavimentum "hard floor, level surface beaten firm," from pavire (see pave).
Walk the streets, especially in search of employment. For example, He was fired last year and he's been pounding the pavement ever since. A similar usage is pound a beat, meaning “to walk a particular route over and over”; it is nearly always applied to a police officer. [Early 1900s]
