av·oir·du·pois

(ăv′ər-də-poiz′)

1. Abbr. av. or avdp. Avoirdupois weight.

2. Informal Weight or heaviness, especially of a person.

[Middle English avoir de pois, commodities sold by weight, alteration of Old French aveir de peis, goods of weight : aveir, avoir, to have (from Latin habēre; see able) + de, of (from Latin dē, from; see de-) + peis, pois, weight (from Vulgar Latin *pēsum, from Latin pēnsum, past participle of pendere, to hang; see (s)pen- in Indo-European roots).]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

avoirdupois

(ˌævədəˈpɔɪz; ˌævwɑːdjuːˈpwɑː) or

avoirdupois weight

(Units) a system of weights used in many English-speaking countries. It is based on the pound, which contains 16 ounces or 7000 grains. 100 pounds (US) or 112 pounds (Brit) is equal to 1 hundredweight and 20 hundredweights equals 1 ton. Abbreviation: avdp or avoir

[C14: from Old French aver de peis goods of weight]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

av•oir•du•pois

(ˌæv ər dəˈpɔɪz)

n.

1. avoirdupois weight.

2. Informal. bodily weight; heaviness: excess avoirdupois.

[1250–1300; Middle English avoir de pois literally, property of weight < Old French, =avoir (< Latin habēre to have) + de (< Latin dē) + pois (< Latin pēnsum) weight]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	avoirdupois - a system of weights based on the 16-ounce pound (or 7,000 grains) avoirdupois weight system of weights, weight - a system of units used to express the weight of something avoirdupois unit - any of the units of the avoirdupois system of weights
	2.	avoirdupois - excess bodily weight; "she disliked fatness in herself as well as in others" fatness, blubber, fat bodily property - an attribute of the body adiposeness, adiposity, fattiness - having the property of containing fat; "he recommended exercise to reduce my adiposity" abdominousness, paunchiness - the bodily property of a protruding belly greasiness, oiliness, oleaginousness - consisting of or covered with oil corpulency, fleshiness - more than average fatness steatopygia - an extreme accumulation of fat on the buttocks

avoirdupois

noun

Informal. The state or quality of being physically heavy:

heaviness, heftiness, massiveness, ponderosity, ponderousness, weight, weightiness.

Translations

avoirdupois

n → Avoirdupois nt; (hum: = excess weight) → Fülligkeit f, → Üppigkeit f; there’s been an increase in her avoirdupois (hum) → sie ist ziemlich in die Breite gegangen

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

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References in classic literature

Janet is a dear soul and very nicelooking; tall, but not over-tall; stoutish, yet with a certain restraint of outline suggestive of a thrifty soul who is not going to be overlavish even in the matter of avoirdupois. She has a knot of soft, crimpy, brown hair with a thread of gray in it, a sunny face with rosy cheeks, and big, kind eyes as blue as forget-me-nots.

View in context

The weight of these valuables exceeded three hundred and fifty pounds avoirdupois; and in this estimate I have not included one hundred and ninety-seven superb gold watches; three of the number being worth each five hundred dollars, if one.

View in context

The two remaining weight systems, the avoirdupois and the troy, were in use until the 20th century and these two systems deserve closer inspection.

MEASURES IN MEDIEVAL ENGLISH RECIPES --CULINARY VS. MEDICAL

Gold is measured using the Troy ounce, which is equal to 1.09714 of the more commonly used (avoirdupois) ounce.

Gold market (1971-2011): Alaska trends, an outline of significant statewide statistics, is provided by the University of Alaska Center for Economic Development

One troy ounce is equal to 1.09711 avoirdupois ounce, those widely used to measure weights in the US and UK.

Gold returns back above USD1,000 dollars

Of course, the fact that today's automobiles get about double the gas mileage of cars in the 1960s counteracts any contribution to global warming that our extra avoirdupois may entail.

Supersized drivers: does fat cause global warming?

The rest of the world doesn't worry about remembering how many ounces to the pound, or how many pounds to the ton, and whether you're talking about "avoirdupois weight" or "troy weight," which is mostly used for gold, gems, and medicines.

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The government-sponsored campaign to make us forgo our avoirdupois in favor of grams and kilograms is moving very slowly.

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