poncer

Poncer is a French verb meaning to sand or to smooth a surface by abrasion, typically using sandpaper or another abrasive tool. It is commonly used in carpentry, painting, and finishing work to remove roughness, old coatings, or minor imperfections and to prepare a surface for a subsequent coat of finish.

The infinitive form is poncer; the past participle is poncé, and the related noun ponçage designates the act or process of sanding. Agent nouns include ponceur (a person who sands or a sanding tool) and ponceuse (the feminine form for a power sander). In everyday usage, one might say "poncer le bois" or "poncer la surface jusqu'à obtenir une finition lisse." The term often appears in conjunction with other finishing steps, such as priming and painting.

Outside of French-language contexts, poncer is rarely used as a technical term in English, where translations such as "to sand" or "sanding" are preferred. When encountered in non-French texts, it is typically as a loanword in instructional or craft-related content.

Poncer may also appear as a surname or in brand or product names in Francophone regions, though such uses are not standardized and vary by locale. In general, discussions of sanding connect to related terms like ponçage, papier de verre (sandpaper), and la ponceuse (a sander).