Pummels

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To repeatedly hit with great force while overpowering or defeating decisively and vigorously striking or crushing an object with intensity
2. To strike heavily and continuously while decisively overcoming or defeating an opponent and forcefully hitting or smashing an object
3. To deliver a series of powerful blows using the fists in rapid succession

Etymology: "Pummels" is the third-person singular present of "pummel," so the real story belongs to the verb itself. "Pummel" is an alteration of "pommel," the older word for striking with the knob of a sword or with the fist. The change from "pommel" to "pummel" is a shift in vowel, the kind that happens when a word is reshaped by repeated use and by people's ears and habits rather than by any deliberate decision. "Pommel" itself came to English from a noun meaning the rounded knob on a sword hilt, and that is where the idea of hitting with something blunt and heavy comes from. The result is a verb that keeps the blunt, thudding sense of a hard object swung against a body, now applied to both repeated blows and the decisive overpowering of an opponent.

Synonyms: bashes, pounds, hits, strikes, thumps

Antonyms: caresses, soothes, pet, gently touches, tenderizes