pound the pavement

Idioms  

1. 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]

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Example Sentences

Among those eager to pound the pavement again was Jonathan Gomas of Milwaukee, who started door-knocking with his parents when he was “big enough to ring a doorbell.”

From Seattle Times • Sep. 2, 2022

How long it takes this time and who wants to be part of it will factor into the debate as the parties pound the pavement for votes over the next six weeks.

From BBC • Mar. 27, 2022

With the weather being the clearest we’ve had all week, you can pound the pavement at several free activities organized by New York Road Runners:

From New York Times • Jun. 7, 2017

Young folks pound the pavement seeking gainful employment in the new unscripted series "Job or No Job."

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 1, 2015

For approaching him from the east his eyes had made out the familiar figure of old McCooey, the oldest plain-clothes man who still came out from Headquarters to "pound the pavement."

From Never-Fail Blake by Stringer, Arthur