TONNAGE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Tonnage

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/tˈənədʒ/ /tˈənɪdʒ/ Listen

noun

Tonnage n.

The weight of goods carried in a boat or a ship.

The cubical content or burden of a vessel, or vessels, in tons; or, the amount of weight which one or several vessels may carry. See Ton, n. (b). "A fleet... with an aggregate tonnage of 60,000 seemed sufficient to conquer the world."

A duty or impost on vessels, estimated per ton, or, a duty, toll, or rate payable on goods per ton transported on canals.

The whole amount of shipping estimated by tons; as, the tonnage of the United States. See Ton. Note: There are in common use the following terms relating to tonnage: (a) Displacement. (b) Register tonnage, gross and net. (c) Freight tonnage. (d) Builders' measurement. (e) Yacht measurement. The first is mainly used for war vessels, where the total weight is likely to be nearly constant. The second is the most important, being that used for commercial purposes. The third and fourth are different rules for ascertaining the actual burden-carrying power of a vessel, and the fifth is for the proper classification of pleasure craft. Gross tonnage expresses the total cubical interior of a vessel; net tonnage, the cubical space actually available for freight-carrying purposes. Rules for ascertaining these measurements are established by law.

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Etymology of 'Tonnage'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tonnage" Quotes from Famous Books

... Macintosh's ship; evidently a ship of war, but showing NO COLOURS—a very suspicious fact. All English ships at that time trading to and from India, by admiralty rules, were obliged to carry armaments proportioned to their tonnage, and crew sufficient to man and work the guns carried. The strange sail was NEARING them, or "the big stranger," as the seamen immediately named her. My brother, many years afterwards, more than once told me, that the change, or rather the TRANSFORMATION, ...

— Warlock o' Glenwarlock • George MacDonald

... Embleton said. "And for myself, I would rather command a craft of that size than one of greater tonnage." ...

— With Cochrane the Dauntless • George Alfred Henty

... life. 23. Apart from his love, Orlando was also a noble youth. When old Adam, at last overcome by fatigue, sank in the footsteps of Orlando, Orlando tries to encourage and assist him. 24. The increase in tonnage was not so rapid as it would have been were it not ...

— Practical Exercises in English • Huber Gray Buehler

... tonnage was three hundred and eighty-six, but the actual carrying capacity we found to be about ...

— The Home of the Blizzard • Douglas Mawson

... built of iron,—that is to say, an iron sheet of about two centimbtres thick constitutes all her planking,—and that her deck—divided into twelve great panels, is so weak that it has been thought incapable of carrying guns proportioned to her tonnage. Those who have seen the massive vessels of the fishermen of Peterhead, their enormous outside planking, their bracings and fastenings in wood and in iron, and their internal knees and stancheons, may form an idea from such precautions—imposed by long experience of the nature of ...

— Letters From High Latitudes • The Marquess of Dufferin (Lord Dufferin)

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