Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A unit of weight equal to 2,000 pounds (0.907 metric ton or 907.18 kilograms).
- noun A unit of weight equal to 2,240 pounds (1.016 metric tons or 1,016.05 kilograms).
- noun A metric ton.
- noun A unit of capacity for cargo in maritime shipping, normally estimated at 40 cubic feet.
- noun A unit of internal capacity of a ship equal to 100 cubic feet.
- noun A unit for measuring the displacement of ships, equal to 35 cubic feet, and supposed to equal the volume taken by a long ton of seawater.
- noun A large extent, amount, or number.
- noun Used adverbially with a or in the plural to mean “to a great degree or extent” or “frequently”.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A Middle English plural of
toe . - noun The prevailing mode; high fashion; style; air of fashion. See
bon-ton . - See
tone . - noun A form of -town, being the word town used in place-names, as Ashton, Hampton, Wolverton, Merton.
- noun A cask; hence, a measure of capacity used for wine. See
tun , 1. - noun A measure of capacity: used
- noun for timber. 40 feet of oak or ash timber, sometimes 48 or 50 feet of hewn
- noun for flour, 8 sacks or 10 barrels
- noun for potatoes, 10 to 36 bushels
- noun for wheat, 20 bushels
- noun for earth or gravel, 1 cubie yard, sometimes 23 cubic feet
- noun for grindstones, 15 cubic feet
- noun for Portland stone, 16 cubic feet
- noun for salt, 42 bushels
- noun for lime, 40 bushels
- noun for coke, 28 bushels
- noun for the carrying capacity of a ship, 40 cubic feet (this is what is called the actual tonnage: See
tonnage ). - noun A measure of weight, equal to 20 hundred-weight or 2,240 pounds avoirdupois (the long ton), or in the United States to 2,000 pounds (the short ton).
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) The common tunny, or horse mackerel.
- pl. of
toe . - noun The prevailing fashion or mode; vogue.
- noun See in the Vocabulary.
- noun (Com.) A measure of weight or quantity.
- noun The weight of twenty hundredweight.
- noun (Naut. & Com.) Forty cubic feet of space, being the unit of measurement of the burden, or carrying capacity, of a vessel; as a vessel of 300
tons burden. - noun (Naut. & Com.) A certain weight or quantity of merchandise, with reference to transportation as freight; as, six hundred weight of ship bread in casks, seven hundred weight in bags, eight hundred weight in bulk; ten bushels of potatoes; eight sacks, or ten barrels, of flour; forty cubic feet of rough, or fifty cubic feet of hewn, timber, etc.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A unit of
weight (mass ) equal to 2240pounds (along ton ) or 2000 pounds (ashort ton ) or 1000kilograms (ametric ton ). - noun A unit of
volume ;register ton . - noun In
refrigeration andair conditioning , a unit of thermal power defined as 12,000BTU /h (about 3.514kW or 3024kcal /h), originally the rate of cooling provided by uniform isothermal melting of one short ton of ice per day at 32 °F (0 °C). - noun colloquial, hyperbolic A large amount.
- noun slang A speed of 100
mph . - noun slang One hundred
pounds sterling . - noun cricket One hundred runs.
- noun darts One hundred points.
- noun
Fashion , the current style, thevogue . - noun Fashionable society; those in style.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a British unit of weight equivalent to 2240 pounds
- noun a United States unit of weight equivalent to 2000 pounds
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word ton.
Examples
-
The long ton is used by coal dealers in some localities, but the ton, sometimes called the _short ton_, is in more general use and is the one meant unless long ton is specified.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery Volume 1: Essentials of Cookery; Cereals; Bread; Hot Breads
-
Woodbury Kane -- social leader, Fortune's favorite, aristocratic, refined, cultured, wealthy, _haut ton de haut ton_, and _sabreur sans peur et sans reproche_ -- how shall I paint him to you as I learned to know him in those dreadful, delightful seventeen days in which we lived only from instant to instant, and every man unconsciously bared his soul to his comrades because he could not help it?
History of the Gatling Gun Detachment John Henry Parker
-
Although 2,000 pounds make 1 ton, it is well to note that 2,240 pounds make 1 _long ton_ (L.T.).
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery Volume 1: Essentials of Cookery; Cereals; Bread; Hot Breads
-
A device often adopted in practice where a large number of assays of one kind are made, and the report is given as so many ounces or pounds to the ton, is that known as the _assay ton_.
A Text-book of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. Cornelius Beringer 1886
-
The twentieth crop, on the continuously unmanured plot was nearly 1¼ ton per acre, the first cutting, and nearly ¾-ton the second cutting.
Talks on Manures A Series of Familiar and Practical Talks Between the Author and the Deacon, the Doctor, and other Neighbors, on the Whole Subject Joseph Harris 1860
-
"I don't take him seriously," answered Brigit; "he has the great science of _l'excellent ton dans le mauvis ton_.
Robert Orange Being a Continuation of the History of Robert Orange John Oliver Hobbes 1886
-
'Half a ton is a large quantity!' sighed the bear.
Tales of the Punjab 1894
-
Most analysts expect the price of iron ore to fall to US$75/ton from the current US$150/ton level by the middle of this decade, given a large new supply of iron ore coming into the market due to increased investment in iron ore mining globally.
Fortescue Readies $2 Billion Bond Offer Michael Aneiro 2010
-
The men carry metal plates, each weighing more than a ton from the shoreline to waiting trucks, walking in step like pallbearers, or like members of a chain gang.
-
Vilain ton as two words, to sharpen the pun; and he scrawled an equivocation about Ney or
bilby commented on the word ton
Cricket jargon - one hundred runs, equivalent to a century.
December 1, 2007
bethan commented on the word ton
Also the height of fashion or taste.
October 15, 2008