ton n.1
1. a very large (unspecified) amount; thus tons n.
in Father Bombo’s Pilgrimage (1975) i iii 13: At my first dive I was drove to the bottom with such fury, that my head stuck a considerable time in a ton of mud . | ||
Sporting Times 1 Mar. 3/2: I missed a ton of money by not taking the long odds. | ||
Mirror of Life 5 Jan. 11/1: [A] once pedestrian celebrity, who left a ‘ton of money’ . | ||
Sun. Times (Perth) 3 Jan. 2/5: Westward Ho [i.e. a racehorse] [...] has cost his party a ton of money lately. | ||
Dubliners (1956) 73: I feel a ton better since I landed again in dear, dirty Dublin. | ‘A Little Cloud’||
Old Man Curry 171: ‘The books made him favorite and took in a ton of money.’. | ‘Eliphaz, Late Fairfax’ in||
My Man Jeeves [ebook] [S]he had a ton and a half of red-gold hair, grey eyes, and one of those determined chins. | ‘Absent Treatment’ in||
You Can’t Win (2000) 136: That rat, Finnery, the trusty [...] has got a ton of it [i.e. morphine]. | ||
Runyon on Broadway (1954) 553: I will become heavy-weight champion of the world as you say, and make a ton of money. | ‘The Big Umbrella’ in||
(con. early 1930s) Harlem Glory (1990) 39: I’ve heard a ton of tales about you. | ||
Scrambled Yeggs 13: Dope sheets, showing what pigs are running at what tracks and how they’ve been running and a ton of other information in an abbreviated code. | ||
Up the Junction 2: What’s it like havin’ a ton of money? | ||
Ghosts of the Big Country 54: Well, you might not look much like bloody footballers, but you’ve certainly got a ton of guts! | ||
Traveller’s Tool 36: You’ll certainly require a ton of the folding stuff. | ||
Pulp Fiction [film script] 2: The Young Woman pours a ton of cream and sugar into her coffee. | ||
Nature Girl 7: She says it’s a ton of fun and the money’s pretty good, too. | ||
Word Is Bone [ebook] ‘The vig was at a thousand bones a match. I got three more dogs got me a vig of three fifty, and four more after that, that brought in fifty more.’ ‘How much was that total?’ ‘A fucking ton’. | ||
Dirtbag, Massachusetts 177: [He] made a ton of money after starting his own porn site. |
2. £100.
Dead Bird (Sydney) 22 Feb. 3/3: There was exactly three tons of money behind the Melbourne dog, and nearly as much within a quarter of a ton behind his Sydney jags. | ||
Und. Nights 167: He gave me a ton (£100) for the groins. | ||
Crust on its Uppers 20: We [...] grafted four ton apiece from the old dear. | ||
Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 91: You bung me two tons, right? | ||
Up the Cross 37: ‘I’ll sink a couple of ton into the deal’. | (con. 1959)||
Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 130: Here love – here’s a ton / go get it fixed / a hundred quid to kick it out. | West in||
Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 223: ‘He insisted on the whole ton’. | ||
Salesman 102: I know a fella drinks up my way might be interested, but he’d need five ton. To hurt him like. | ||
Stump 52: Still n all tho, it’s a ton for a day’s work. | ||
Killing Pool 31: I asked him for a five-ton deal [i.e. of heroin]. |
3. 100 miles per hour; usu. as do a ton v., to drive at that speed.
Saved Scene iii: This lorry was doin’ a ton in a built-up street. | ||
Lowspeak. | ||
Indep. on Sun. Real Life 1 Aug. 1: Doing a ton along the S-bends through the iron bridges. A lot of bikers were killed. | ||
White Trash 160: It wasn’t like she hadn’t done a ton before. |
4. any unit of 100, e.g. 100 years, 100 runs (in cricket).
Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976) 67: Pity the tall girl [...] didn’t get her ton. | ||
London Fields 149: He goes ton-forty and has three darts at double 16? | ||
How to Kiss a Crocodile 130: The ton took the maestro of the willow just 64 balls and 12 fours and four huge sixes. | ||
Happy Like Murderers 350: He was forty-nine in 1990 – coming up to the half-ton. |
5. (N.Z. prison) a 100mg tablet of morphne sulphate.
Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 190/2: ton n. a 100mg morphine sulphate tablet. |
In compounds
(UK Und.) a box containing £100,000 in cash used by security firms to move cash.
Raiders 8: The ton-box has added security devices [...] so it is insured for up to £100,000 going across the pavement. |
In phrases
1. £50.
Norman’s London (1969) 61: fifty pounds – Half a ton. | in Encounter n.d. in||
Minder [TV script] 51: There you go ... half a ton. Bit tight-fisted that Christina. | ‘The Dessert Song’||
Minder [TV script] 6: I’m offering them at half a ton a case. | ‘Senior Citizen Caine’
2. (bingo) the number ten [the ‘half’ is visual, 10 has only one of the two 0s of 100].
There is a Happy Land (1964) 90: The man on the bingo stall shouted: [...] half a ton num-ber ten. Sweet sixteen, never been kissed. |
3. 50 miles per hour.
Start in Life (1979) 182: I [...] didn’t know he was doing half a ton. |