avoirdupois : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: avoirdupois	by the DICT Development Group
2 results for avoirdupois
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
avoirdupois n a system of weights based on the 16-ounce pound (or 7,000 grains) Synonym(s): avoirdupois, avoirdupois weight excess bodily weight; "she disliked fatness in herself as well as in others" Synonym(s): fatness, fat, blubber, avoirdupois Antonym(s): leanness, spareness, thinness
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Avoirdupois \Av`oirdupois"\ ([acr]v`[etil]rd[usl]poiz"), n. & a. [OE. aver de peis, goods of weight, where peis is fr. OF. peis weight, F. poids, L. pensum. See {Aver}, n., and {Poise}, n.] 1. Goods sold by weight. [Obs.] 2. Avoirdupois weight. 3. Weight; heaviness; as, a woman of much avoirdupois. [Colloq.] {Avoirdupois weight}, a system of weights by which coarser commodities are weighed, such as hay, grain, butter, sugar, tea. Note: The standard Avoirdupois pound of the United States is equivalent to the weight of 27.7015 cubic inches of distilled water at 62[deg] Fahrenheit, the barometer being at 30 inches, and the water weighed in the air with brass weights. In this system of weights 16 drams make 1 ounce, 16 ounces 1 pound, 25 pounds 1 quarter, 4 quarters 1 hundred weight, and 20 hundred weight 1 ton. The above pound contains 7,000 grains, or 453.54 grams, so that 1 pound avoirdupois is equivalent to 1 31-144 pounds troy. (See {Troy weight}.) Formerly, a hundred weight was reckoned at 112 pounds, the ton being 2,240 pounds (sometimes called a long ton).