Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A unit of dry measure formerly used in England, equal to 4 quarters or about 32 bushels for grain and 36 bushels for coal.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A measure of coals, etc., equal, by a statute of Charles II., to 36 coal bushels, or 25½ hundredweight, but customarily in England to 32 heaped bushels.
  • noun See chaudron.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An English dry measure, being, at London, 36 bushels heaped up, or its equivalent weight, and more than twice as much at Newcastle. Now used exclusively for coal and coke.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun archaic An old English dry measure, containing four quarters. At London, 36 bushels heaped up, or its equivalent weight, and more than twice as much at Newcastle. Now used exclusively for coal and coke.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a British imperial capacity measure (liquid or dry) equal to 36 bushels

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French chauderon, augmentative of chaudiere, kettle, from Late Latin caldāria; see cauldron.]

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Examples

  • It's a place where a chaldron is a ceramic object of mystic power, not a volumetric measure of coal.

    Denver Post: News: Breaking: Local 2009

  • He took part in the contest, and in spite of his early reputation, was spelled down on the word "chaldron," which he spelled

    Mark Twain, a Biography — Volume I, Part 2: 1835-1866 Albert Bigelow Paine 1899

  • He took part in the contest, and in spite of his early reputation, was spelled down on the word "chaldron," which he spelled

    Mark Twain, a Biography. Complete Albert Bigelow Paine 1899

  • Another hostile writer compared them to “the witches in Macbeth, dancing round the chaldron of sedition, each throwing in his proportion of spells, for the confusion of his country.”

    Ratification Pauline Maier 2010

  • Another hostile writer compared them to “the witches in Macbeth, dancing round the chaldron of sedition, each throwing in his proportion of spells, for the confusion of his country.”

    Ratification Pauline Maier 2010

  • Another hostile writer compared them to “the witches in Macbeth, dancing round the chaldron of sedition, each throwing in his proportion of spells, for the confusion of his country.”

    Ratification Pauline Maier 2010

  • Company and could supply his friends and the public with the best coals at — s. per chaldron.

    Vanity Fair 2006

  • He took part in the contest, and in spite of his early reputation, was spelled down on the word “chaldron,” which he spelled “cauldron,” as he had been taught, while the dictionary used as authority gave that form as second choice.

    Mark Twain: A Biography 2003

  • In the town of Ipswich the masters of these ships generally dwelt, and there were, as they then told me, above a hundred sail of them, belonging to the town at one time, the least of which carried fifteen score, as they compute it, that is, 300 chaldron of coals; this was about the year 1668 (when I first knew the place).

    A Tour through the Eastern Counties of England, 1722 2003

  • In the town of Ipswich the masters of these ships generally dwelt, and there were, as they then told me, above a hundred sail of them, belonging to the town at one time, the least of which carried fifteen score, as they compute it, that is, 300 chaldron of coals; this was about the year 1668 (when I first knew the place).

    A Tour through the Eastern Counties of England, 1722 2003

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