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.]
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2. Avoirdupois weight.
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3. Weight; heaviness; as, a woman of much avoirdupois.
[Colloq.]
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Avoirdupois weight, a system of weights by which coarser
commodities are weighed, such as hay, grain, butter,
sugar, tea.
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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 v.0.48
avoirdupois
n 1: a system of weights based on the 16-ounce pound (or 7,000
grains) [syn: avoirdupois weight]
2: excess bodily weight; "she found fatness disgusting in
herself as well as in others" [syn: fatness, fat, blubber]
[ant: leanness]
WordNet (r) 2.0
23 Moby Thesaurus words for "avoirdupois":
beef, beefiness, deadweight, fatness, gravity, gross weight,
heaviness, heft, heftiness, liveweight, neat weight, net,
net weight, overbalance, overweight, ponderability, ponderosity,
ponderousness, poundage, tonnage, underweight, weight,
weightiness
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
avoirdupois system, avoirdupois system of units, avoirdupois unit, avoirdupois weight, avoirdupois weights, blubber, fat, fatness
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