TON • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Ton

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/tən/ Listen

noun

Ton n. obs. Pl. of Toe.

Ton n. (Zool.) The common tunny, or horse mackerel.

Ton n. The prevailing fashion or mode; vogue; as, things of ton. "If our people of ton are selfish, at any rate they show they are selfish."

Bon ton. See in the Vocabulary.

Ton n. (Com.) A measure of weight or quantity. Specifically:

(a)

The weight of twenty hundredweight. Note: In England, the ton is 2,240 pounds. In the United States the ton is commonly estimated at 2,000 pounds, this being sometimes called the short ton, while that of 2,240 pounds is called the long ton.

(b)

(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. See the Note under Tonnage.

(c)

(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. Note: Ton and tun have the same etymology, and were formerly used interchangeably; but now ton generally designates the weight, and tun the cask. See Tun.

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Etymology of 'Ton'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ton" Quotes from Famous Books

... center of the chamber was a heap of rocks, weighing probably a ton or more. These had been wrenched from the roof of the place and dropped into the room where Phipps ...

— The Pony Rider Boys in the Ozarks • Frank Gee Patchin

... He hopes to fly an aeroplane over a German submarine base, and drop a ton of dynamite on it and ...

— The Letters of Franklin K. Lane • Franklin K. Lane

... buff on me! And if there were twenty thousand eediots like yourself, sorrow a Duncan Jopp would hang the fewer. But there's no splairging possible in a camp; and if ye were to go to it, you would find out for yourself whether Lord Well'n'ton approves of caapital punishment or not. You a sodger!" he cried, with a sudden burst of scorn. "Ye auld wife, the sodgers would ...

— Weir of Hermiston • Robert Louis Stevenson

... their troubles commenced at once. The whaler sailed away, taking with her by mistake the whole of their supply of tobacco. There was no water on the island, and, in their first attempt to start, one of the boats was smashed and nearly half a ton of stores lost. The next day they succeeded in making Dorre Island, but that night both the remaining boats were driven ashore by a violent storm. Two or three days were spent in making good the damage, when they succeeded in making the mainland, ...

— The Explorers of Australia and their Life-work • Ernest Favenc

... navigable; relatively unimportant to national economy, used by shallow-draft craft limited to 300 metric-ton cargo capacity ...

— The 1996 CIA Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

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