POMMEL, n. [L. pomum, an apple, or a similar fruit.]
1. A knob or ball. 2 Chron. 4.2. The knob on the hilt of a sword; the protuberant part of a saddle-bow; the round knob on the frame of a chair, &c.
POMMEL, v.t. [from the noun.] To beat as with a pommel, that is, with something thick or bulky; to bruise.
[The French se pommeler, to grow dapple, to curdle, is from the same source; but the sense is to make knobs or lumps, and hence to variegate, or make spots like knobs. The Welsh have from the same root, or pwmp, a mass, pwmpiaw, to form a round mass, and to thump, to bang, Eng. to bump.]