hundredweight
Americannoun
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hundredweights,
plural
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hundredweight
plural
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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:
Old Dominion Freight Line reported revenue per hundredweight excluding fuel surcharges rose 5.4% year-over-year for the second quarter through May.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
Small dairies would receive more money per hundredweight of milk produced, while the largest dairies wouldn’t receive any federal funds.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 22, 2019
"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
There are two men filling bags with coal and turf and weighing them on the great iron scale, a hundredweight in each bag.
From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
The tons shrank to hundredweights, the hundredweights to pounds, the pounds to ounces.
From Time Magazine Archive
Anyone that delivers hundredweights of coal is not a Frankie.
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
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
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
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.
