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Definition of hundredweight : A denomination of weight, containing 100, 112, or 120 pounds avoirdupois, according to differing laws or customs. By the legal standard of England it is 112 pounds. In most of the United States, both in practice and by law, it is 100 pounds avoirdupois, the corresponding ton of 2, 000 pounds, sometimes called the short ton, being the legal ton.

Synonyms:

metric hundredweight, doppelzentner, quintal, short hundredweight, cwt, long hundredweight, centner, cental

Usage examples:

• The tree begins to bear five years after planting, and should take the record as a profitable friend of man, for under favourable conditions it will go on bearing for a hundred years or more, while a good tree will bear, on an average, over a hundredweight of fruit, which is disposed of amongst the people at the popular price of one penny per pound. - "The Khedive's Country", George Manville Fenn.
• The house was slated with massive slate of some hundredweight each, and it was not found possible to remove them so as to give air, although frequent attempts were made. - "Mr. Midshipman Easy", Captain Frederick Marryat.
• A lady district visitor who called occasionally sometimes gave Mary an order for a hundredweight of coal or a shillingsworth of groceries, or a ticket for a quart of soup, which Elsie fetched in the evening from the Soup Kitchen. - "The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists", Robert Tressell.