pow

1. The sound of a violent impact, such as a punch.

   Whap, Biff, Ooooof, Sock, Pow, Zok! Batman is back. Gotham City is again leaving its law and order in the hands of a man who wears plastic underpants over his tights.

   1989 June 5, The Canberra Times, Australia Captial Territory, page 10, column 2

2. The sound of an explosion or gunshot.

   Pow, they took off.

   1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 71

   1 more example

   ‘Pow-pow-pow...’ Monte drew and slaughtered the besiegers.

   1982, Paul Radley, My Blue-Checker Corker and Me, Sydney: Fontana/Collins, page 41

plural pows

1. The sound of a violent impact.
2. The sound of an explosion.

plural pows

1. IrelandNorthern EnglandScotlandalternativeAlternative form of poll.

   he'd snuffle round the door till the few remaining hairs on the bald pow of Munro would fair rise on end.

   1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 24

2. abbreviationclippingslanghobbiesClipping of powder (“powder snow”).

plural POWs

1. abbreviationinitialismgovernmentInitialism of prisoner of war.

   After his capture, he was taken to a camp for POWs.

   Synonyms: PW

2. abbreviationinitialismlifestyleInitialism of place of worship.
3. businessAlternative letter-case form of PoW (“proof of work”).

plural PoWs

1. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablebusinessInitialism of proof of work.

   With PoW, as new, unverified transactions become available or broadcast to the entire blockchain network, each node that maintains a copy of the ledger (also known as a “miner”) verifies a set of those transactions to prevent so called “double spending”.

   2019, Peng Zhang, Role of Blockchain Technology in IoT Applications, Academic Press, →ISBN, page 187

2. abbreviationcountableinitialismgovernmentInitialism of prisoner of war.

   My Lords, is my noble friend aware that in my opinion Saddam Hussein is very lucky that he has been classed as a PoW? Who decided that he was going to be a PoW and who decided that the people in Guantanamo Bay are not PoWs?

   2004 June 16, Lord Berkeley, quotee, The Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), volume 662, columns 747–748

   2 more examples

   The communists demand the release of all prisoners detained by Saigon – not only the so-called PoWs. This distinction between “prisoners” and “prisoners of war” is significant since the great majority of the NLF members held by Saigon do not have PoW status. Until 1965 there was no such thing as a PoW; NLF prisoners were considered common criminals.

   1972, Alexander Casella, “Saigon’s prisoners”, in Far Eastern Economic Review, volume 78, page 24, column 1

   Until the late eighteenth century, it was normal to have ad hoc and often short-term holding of PoWs. But with the development of substantial armies and navies and so the ability to take large numbers from even a single conflict, the concept of PoW camps developed in order to manage the captives.

   2013, Harold Mytum, Gilly Carr, “Prisoner of War Archaeology”, in Harold Mytum, Gilly Carr, editors, Prisoners of War: Archaeology, Memory, and Heritage of 19th- and 20th-Century Mass Internment (Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology), New York, N.Y.: Springer Science+Business Media, →ISBN, part I (Introduction), page 3

plural Pows

1. A surname.