[a. Ger. centner, ad. L. centēnārius relating to a hundred.]
1. A measure of weight used in Germany.
1683. Phil. Trans., XIII. 190. A centner or hundred weight.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. VII. lxxxviii. 408. 120 [Pounds] 1 centner.
1861. Leeds Mercurys, 2 Nov., 7/4. The Fürstenberg works use about 10,000 centners of cast iron … and produce yearly from 80,000 to 100,000 centners of raw iron.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 756. The Zollverein Centner contains 110·231 English lbs. avoirdupois.
† 2. Proposed as a name for what was at length called the CENTAL. Obs.
1862. Rep. Sel. Parl. Comm. Weights & Meas. (Evidence of Prof. Leone Levi), § 37.
3. Metallurgy. (See quot.)
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v. Hundred, Centner in metallurgy and assaying is a weight divisible first into an hundred and thence into a great number of other smaller parts…. The center of the metallurgists contains an hundred pounds, the centner of the assayers is really no more than one dram, to which the other parts are proportioned.
