ton

• POS: Noun, Adverb

CIDE DICTIONARY

ton, pl. 

 pl. of Toe.  Chaucer.  [1913 Webster]

ton, n. [Cf. Tunny.].

 The common tunny, or horse mackerel.  [1913 Webster]

ton, n. [F. See Tone.].

 The prevailing fashion or mode; vogue; as, things of ton.  Byron.  [1913 Webster]
"If our people of ton are selfish, at any rate they show they are selfish."  [1913 Webster]

Bon ton. See in the Vocabulary.

ton, n. [OE. tonne, tunne, a tun, AS. tunne a tun, tub, a large vessel; akin to G. & F. tonne a ton, tun, LL. tunna a tun; all perhaps of Celtic origin; cf. Ir. & Gael. tunna a tun. Cf. Tun,Tunnel.].

 A measure of weight or quantity.  [1913 Webster]
" 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."  [1913 Webster]
" 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."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

ton, n.
1 (in full long ton) a unit of weight equal to 2,240 lb. avoirdupois (1016.05 kg).
2 (in full short ton) a unit of weight equal to 2,000 lb. avoirdupois (907.19 kg).
3 (in full metric ton) = TONNE.
4 a (in full displacement ton) a unit of measurement of a ship's weight or volume in terms of its displacement of water with the loadline just immersed, equal to 2,240 lb. or 35 cu. ft. (0.99 cubic metres). b (in full freight ton) a unit of weight or volume of cargo, equal to a metric ton (1,000 kg) or 40 cu. ft.
5 a (in full gross ton) a unit of gross internal capacity, equal to 100 cu. ft. (2.83 cubic metres). b (in full net or register ton) an equivalent unit of net internal capacity.
6 a unit of refrigerating power able to freeze 2,000 lb. of ice at 0°C in 24 hours.
7 a measure of capacity for various materials, esp. 40 cu. ft. of timber.
8 (usu. in pl.) colloq. a large number or amount (tons of money).
9 esp. Brit. sl. a a speed of 100 m.p.h. b a sum of {pound}100. c a score of 100.

Idiom

ton-mile one ton of goods carried one mile, as a unit of traffic. ton-up Brit. sl. n. a speed of 100 m.p.h.
--attrib.adj.
1 (of a motor cyclist) achieving this, esp. habitually and recklessly (ton-up kid).
2 fond or capable of travelling at high speed. weigh a ton colloq. be very heavy.

ton, n.
1 a prevailing mode or fashion.
2 fashionable society.

Etymology

F

ROGET THESAURUS

ton

Fashion

N fashion, style, ton, bon ton, society, good society, polite society, monde, drawing-room, civilized life, civilization, town, beau monde, high life, court, world, fashionable world, gay world, Vanity Fair, show, manners, breeding, air, demeanor, savoir faire, gentlemanliness, gentility, decorum, propriety, biens_eance, conventions of society, Mrs, Grundy, punctilio, form, formality, etiquette, point of etiquette, dress, custom, mode, vogue, go, rage, prevailing taste, fad, trend, bandwagon, furore, thing, in thing, craze, chic, last word, man of fashion, woman of fashion, man of the world, woman of the world, height of fashion, pink of fashion, star of fashion, glass of fashion, leader of fashion, arbiter elegantiarum, the beautiful people, the fashion set, upper ten thousand, elite, smart set, the four hundred, in crowd, fashionable, in fashion, a la mode, comme il faut, admitted in society, admissible in society, presentable, conventional, genteel, well-bred, well mannered, well behaved, well spoken, gentlemanlike, gentlemanly, ladylike, civil, polite, polished, refined, thoroughbred, courtly, distingue, unembarrassed, degage, janty, jaunty, dashing, fast, modish, stylish, chic, trendy, recherche, newfangled, all the rage, all the go, with it, in, faddish, in court, in full dress, in evening dress, en grande tenue, fashionably, for fashion's sake, a la francaise, a la parisienne, a l' anglaise, a l' americaine, autre temps autre mauers, chaque pays a sa guise.

Gravity

N gravity, gravitation, weight, heaviness, specific gravity, pondorosity, pressure, load, burden, burthen, ballast, counterpoise, lump of, mass of, weight of, lead, millstone, mountain, Ossa on Pelion, weighing, ponderation, trutination, weights, avoirdupois weight, troy weight, apothecaries' weight, grain, scruple, drachma, ounce, pound, lb, arroba, load, stone, hundredweight, cwt, ton, long ton, metric ton, quintal, carat, pennyweight, tod, gram, centigram, milligram, microgram, kilogram, nanogram, picogram, femtogram, attogram, balance, scale, scales, steelyard, beam, weighbridge, spring balance, piezoelectric balance, analytical balance, two-pan balance, one-pan balance, postal scale, baby scale, statics, weighty, weighing, heavy as lead, ponderous, ponderable, lumpish, lumpy, cumbersome, burdensome, cumbrous, unwieldy, massive, incumbent, superincumbent.