- Avoirdupois weight
- Avoirdupois Av`oir*du*pois" ([a^]v`[~e]r*d[-u]*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.]
[1913 Webster]
2. Avoirdupois weight. [1913 Webster]
3. Weight; heaviness; as, a woman of much avoirdupois. [Colloq.] [1913 Webster]
{Avoirdupois weight}, a system of weights by which coarser commodities are weighed, such as hay, grain, butter, sugar, tea. [1913 Webster]
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). [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.