hundredweight
Americannoun
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Also called cental, quintal. a unit of avoirdupois weight commonly equivalent to 100 pounds (45.359 kilograms) in the U.S. cwt
noun
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Also called: long hundredweight. a unit of weight equal to 112 pounds or 50.802 35 kilograms
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Also called: short hundredweight. a unit of weight equal to 100 pounds or 45.359 24 kilograms
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Also called: metric hundredweight. a metric unit of weight equal to 50 kilograms
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of hundredweight
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The growth was partially offset by lower volumes and a slight decline in base revenue per hundredweight, the company said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
"We've got half a hundredweight here been sent by different people. Everybody's sending me jam roly poly puddings," Redknapp said.
From BBC ● Dec. 18, 2018
Dan Stevens, dimly discernible under a hundredweight of pelt, has more luck.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 17, 2017
Producers harvested 190,000 acres with a yield of 7,200 hundredweight and a price of $13.68 per hundredweight.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 29, 2014
He appeared dramatically upon the edge of the clearing, just as a disturbed branch, whose burden was too heavy, emptied a couple of hundredweight of snow on his head.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
The tons shrank to hundredweights, the hundredweights to pounds, the pounds to ounces.
From Time Magazine Archive
Mr. Hannon says the man who delivered sixteen hundredweights of coal and turf deserves a pint and the boy who helped him deserves a lemonade.
From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
Anyone that delivers hundredweights of coal is not a Frankie.
From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
I don’t care what they call me anymore as long as my eyes are clearing up and I have a regular job lifting hundredweights of coal on a float.
From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
They don’t know I spent the day delivering hundredweights of coal and turf.
From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
