ton

Word family

Related topics: Measurement

ton /tʌn/ S3 noun [countableC] → tonne

1. (plural tons or ton) (written abbreviation t)TM a unit for measuring weight, equal to 2,240 pounds or 1,016 kilograms in Britain, and 2,000 pounds or 907.2 kilograms in the US 英吨〔2,240磅或1,016公斤〕；美吨〔2,000磅或907.2公斤〕 → tonne

2 tons of something informalLOT/LARGE NUMBER OR AMOUNT a lot of something 大量的某事物

I’ve got tons of work to do.

我有很多工作要做。

Examples from the Corpus

tons of something• That could lead to losses of a significant portion of the 100,000 tons of city-generated waste handled by county landfills.• About 100 tons of contaminated sediments still lie on the ocean floor.• The landed vehicle then offloads its 400 tons of water, leaving only 100 tons of hydrogen and oxygen in its tanks.• By August of 1824 the stamps were pounding away and 50 tons of concentrate were ready for market.• They must be making tons of money.• Meanwhile tons of sound equipment seized by police has today been reclaimed by the people who hired it out.• During the course of a year, 1.1 million tons of merchandise and 800,000 head of livestock were dealt with.• The proposed site is reported to contain around 3.5 million tons of talc.• On loan from the Mesa Southwest Museum, the exhibit includes skeletons and eggs, along with tons of other dino-type artifacts.

3 weigh a ton informalHEAVY to be very heavy 非常重

Your bag weighs a ton!

你的包好沉！

Examples from the Corpus

weigh a ton• They were full of books and weighed a ton.• Your bag weighs a ton!• I expect the cab weighs a ton, but the whole kit is still very portable, size-wise.• Some one mentioned to me that 18 to 24 inches of snow on a driveway 10 by 40 feet weighs a ton.• What on earth have you got in this suitcase? It weighs a ton!• It looked as though it weighed a ton and seemed to quiver every so often.• The shire horses are direct descendants of the great war horses, and each one weighs a ton.• That piano weighs a ton. You'll need four men to lift it.• Each one seemed to weigh a ton at least to four small eight-year-olds.• That thing over there seems to weigh a ton.

4. come down on somebody like a ton of bricks informalANGRY to get very angry with someone about something they have done 对某人大发脾气

5. hit somebody like a ton of bricks American EnglishAmE informal to have a strong emotional effect on someone 使某人非常震惊[激动]

Examples from the Corpus

hit somebody like a ton of bricks• The news of her accident hit me like a ton of bricks.

Examples from the Corpus

ton• The station also supplied the nearby brickworks with its coal, 23,000 tons in 1898, chiefly from Yorkshire.• He was welding on top of a 900 ton oil storage tank which exploded, hurling him 120 feet into a wall.• She would get some Dublin Bay prawns and tons of garlic, if he could bring some great wine or other?• About a million tons of lava are pouring every day from the fissure which opened on the Sicilian volcano in December.• Doesn't he care that nuclear energy has so far saved the world from burning five hundred million tons of coal?• The payload of the military 109 is one ton, the civilian 109 is ¾ ton.• From the ton of stuff littering the area, this was clearly a campsite.• Two vats were in use, with maximum production in the region of three tons per week.

From Longman Business Dictionary