Ton

/tʌn/ · noun

Meaning

Any of various units of mass, originally notionally equal to the contents of a tun, particularly:.

Definitions by Sense

1. Any of various units of mass, originally notionally equal to the contents of a tun, particularly:
2. Any of various units of volume, originally notionally equal to the contents of a tun, particularly:
3. (figuratively) Any large, excessive, or overwhelming amount of anything.
4. (HVAC) 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.
5. (colloquial, chiefly UK) Synonym of hundred, particularly:
6. Fashion, the current style, the vogue.
7. Fashionable society; those in style.
8. Synonym of tunny, particularly the common tunny or horse mackerel.

Example Sentences

I’ve got a ton of work to do.

I've got tons of work to do.

Their main problem is that they somehow believe that a 12-ton unit can handle this entire building.

A clergyman cannot be high in state or fashion. He must not head mobs, or set the ton in dress.

If our people of ton are selfish, at any rate they show they are selfish.

[S]he thought herself incapable of being flattered by the attentions of a man she despised, because he was the reigning idol of the ton […].

The party might consist of thirty three Of highest caste—the Brahmins of the ton.

Pen was somewhat older than many of his fellow-students, and there was that about his style and appearance, which, as we have said, was rather haughty and impertinent, that stamped him as a man of ton—very unlike those pale students who were talking law to one another, and those ferocious dandies, in rowing shirts and astonishing pins and waistcoats, who represented the idle part of the little community.

Synonyms for ton

Antonyms for ton

Related Words

Word Forms

• tons

Usage Notes

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