hundredweight
(ˈhʌndrədweɪt)
[f. hundred + weight. The plural is unchanged after a numeral or an adj. expressing plurality, as many.]
An avoirdupois weight equal to 112 pounds; prob. originally to a hundred pounds, whence the name. Abbreviated cwt. (formerly C.).
Locally it has varied from 100 to 120 lb.; ‘in the United States a hundredweight is now commonly understood as 100 pounds’ (Cent. Dict.).
| [1542 see hundred 4 a.] 1577 Harrison England iii. i. (1877) ii. 4 Such [horses] as are kept also for burden, will carie foure hundred weight commonlie. 1672 Petty Pol. Anat. (1691) 53 The said quantity of Milk will make 2½ C. of Raw-Milk-Cheese, and 1 C. of Whey-Butter. 1700 T. Brown tr. Fresny's Amusem. Ser. & Com. 65 [She] could as soon fly with a Hundred Weight of Lead at her Heels. 1858 Greener Gunnery 303 An anchor-shank weighing some hundredweights. 1862 Ansted Channel Isl. iv. App. A (ed. 2) 564 The Jersey local hundred weight consists of 104 Jersey pounds, and the Guernsey hundred weight of 100 Guernsey pounds. 1895 Times 6 Mar. 10/6 The hundred⁓weight of certain kinds of cheese was 112 lb. and of others 120 lb. |
| attrib. 1883 P. Robinson Saints & Sinners 253 Hundredweight blocks of silver bullion. |