ton
/tʌn/ noun B2- The short ton of 2000 pounds (about 907 kg), 20 hundredweights of 100 pounds avoirdupois each.
- The long ton of 2240 pounds (about 1016 kg), 20 hundredweights of 112 pounds avoirdupois each.
- The metric ton of 1000 kilograms (about 2205 lb), 10 quintals of 100 kilograms each.
- The measurement ton of (US) 40 or (UK) 42 cubic feet (about 1.1 or 1.2 m³).
- The register ton of 100 cubic feet (about 2.83 m³).
- Any large, excessive, or overwhelming amount of anything. · I’ve got a ton of work to do.· I've got tons of work to do.
- A unit of thermal power equal to 12,000 BTU/h (about 3.5 kW), approximating the idealized rate of cooling provided by uniform isothermal melting of 1 short ton of ice per day at 0°C.
Plural tons
From the library
If you can imagine a lance, or a battering ram, or a hammer weighing nearly half a ton driven by a cool, quiet mind living in the handle of it, you can roughly imagine what Kaa was like when he fought.
Believe me, and take comfort, this is better for me than tons of gold and cases of diamonds, even were they not as problematical as the clouds we see in the morning floating over the sea, which we take for terra firma, and which evaporate and vanish as we draw near to them.
How could this rock, which weighed several tons, have been lifted to this spot, without the aid of many men?
According to McLean's own figures, the cost of loading fell from almost six dollars a ton to about sixteen cents.
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