A pounding is a heavy repeated beating. Take a pounding, the pounding of the waves, a pounding headache.
It works for surf, artillery, hearts and headaches, and in all of them the repetition is what makes it a pounding rather than a blow. To take a pounding means to be badly beaten, in sport or in argument. Note pound, the verb, beneath it.
1nounpoundingA heavy repeated beating.
“We could hear the pounding of the waves against the rocks.”
pounding is a beating.