Definitions

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

  • noun A unit of mass in the metric system equal to 100 kilograms.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A weight of 100 pounds.

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

  • noun A hundredweight, either 112 or 100 pounds, according to the scale used. Cf. cental.
  • noun A metric measure of weight, being 100,000 grams, or 100 kilograms, equal to 220.46 pounds avoirdupois.

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

  • noun now historical A measure of weight originally equal to a hundred pounds; later, a hundredweight.
  • noun One hundred kilograms.

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

  • noun a unit of weight equal to 100 kilograms
  • noun a United States unit of weight equivalent to 100 pounds

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, a unit of weight, from Old French, from Medieval Latin quintāle, from Arabic qinṭār, from Late Greek kentēnarion, from Late Latin centēnārium (pondus), hundred(weight), from Latin centēnārius, of a hundred; see centenary.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman quintal, Middle French quintal, from Late Latin quintale, from Arabic قنطار (qinṭār), ultimately from Latin centenarius.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word quintal.

Examples

  • All the marchandise which they sell or buy within the sayd citie, they bargaine for at so many serafines per quintal, which is

    The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation 2003

  • The Crown of Victory which the figure holds in her hands weighs one hundred quintals (a quintal is a hundred-weight).

    International Weekly Miscellany - Volume 1, No. 9, August 26, 1850 Various

  • What is there called the quintal weighs from and hundred a fifty to two hundred Paris pounds, or a hundred and seventy-five Paris pounds at a medium, which reduces the price of the hundred weight English to about eight shillings sterling, not a fourth part of what is commonly paid for the brown or muskavada sugars imported from our colonies, and not a sixth part of what is paid for the finest white sugar.

    XI. Book I. Of the Rent of Land 1909

  • A quintal is a unit of measurement equal for growers to 100 pounds 45 kilograms.

    unknown title 2011

  • But the city of Rouen levies on it a duty of twenty sols the quintal, which is very sensible in its price, brings it dearer to the bleacheries near Paris, to those of Beauvais, Laval, etc., and to the glass works, and encourages them to give a preference to the potash or soude of other nations.

    The Writings of Thomas Jefferson Library Edition - Vol. 6 (of 20) Thomas Jefferson 1784

  • L'Orient and Havre, varies from sixteen florins to twenty-four florins the French quintal, which is equal to one hundred and nine pounds our weight.

    The Writings of Thomas Jefferson Library Edition - Vol. 6 (of 20) Thomas Jefferson 1784

  • Rouen levies on it a duty of twenty sols the quintal, which is very sensible in its price, brings it dearer to the bleacheries near Paris, to those of Beauvais, Laval, &c. and to the glass-works, and encourages them to give a preference to the potash or soude of other nations.

    Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 2 Thomas Jefferson 1784

  • What is there called the quintal, weighs from a hundred and fifty to two hundred Paris pounds, or a hundred and seventy-five Paris pounds at a medium, which reduces the price of the hundred weight English to about eight shillings sterling; not a fourth part of what is commonly paid for the brown or muscovada sugars imported from our colonies, and not a sixth part of what is paid for the finest white sugar.

    An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations Adam Smith 1756

  • The state government is planning to propose MSP for potato at Rs 305 per quintal, which is Rs 30 higher than last year to protect the farmers 'interests, they said.

    The Financial Express 2010

  • Pawar also said that the Government has already fixed the fair and remunerative price (FRP) of sugarcane for 2009-10 sugar season at Rs. 129.84 per quintal, which is more than 50 percent higher than the cost of production and transportation incurred, on an average, by the sugarcane farmers in India.

    Gaea Times (by Simple Thoughts) Breaking News and incisive views 24/7 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Bramanti cited one Kiesewetter, who demonstrated in the late nineteenth century that the Rosicrucians had manufactured four quintals of gold for the Prince-Elector of Saxony in medieval times . . . .

    --Umberto Eco, 1988, Foucault's Pendulum, p. 203

    October 3, 2008

  • Also a type of harmony based on stacked fifths.

    October 3, 2008

  • Name of a variety of cabbage listed in Larousse Gastronomique.

    February 18, 2010