See Also: Hundred(medicine)
HUNDRED, Eng(law)
hundred(dictionary)
hundred(dictionary)
HUNDRED GEMOTE(law)
One Hundred and One Dalmatians(dictionary)
Hundred Years War, the(dictionary)
Hundred Years' War(encyclopedia)
Hundred Days(encyclopedia)
Hundred (as used in expressions)(encyclopedia)

hundred (iou)



hundred noun & adjective (in mod. usage also classed as a determiner), ( cardinal numeral).
[Late Old English hundred = Old Frisian hundred, Old Saxon hunderod (Dutch honderd), Middle High German, German hundert, Old Norse hundrae, from Germanic, from base meaning 'hundred' rel. to Latin centum + base meaning 'number' (cf. Gothic raTjo number, account).]
A. noun. In senses 1 and 4 pl. now always same after a numeral and often after a quantifier, otherwise -s; as sing. usu. preceded by a (earlier an), in emphatic use one.
A number equal to ten times ten units of a specified category or group (now almost always definite, as a hundred of the, those, etc., one hundred of her, his mother's, etc.; orig. with genit. pl.); a number equal to ten times ten persons or things identified contextually, as years of age, pounds, dollars, points or runs in a game, chances (in giving odds), etc.; pl. after a quantifier, multiples of ten times ten such people or things. Usu. treated as pl. LOE.
a hundred per cent, one hundred per cent (a) (orig. US) complete(ly), thorough(ly); (b) completely fit or well. a hundred in the water-bag: see WATER noun. a hundred to one a very strong probability. FIVE hundred. one hundred per cent: see a hundred per cent above.
B. G. Gerbier About one hundred of Leagues. Times Tickets fabricated by the hundred. Oxford English Dictionary He lost several hundred of his men. E. O'Neill I'll live to a hundred. J. le Carre They..offered him six hundred a year.
b. In pl. without specifying word: several hundred; hyperbol. large numbers. (Foll. by of.) ME.
hundreds and thousands tiny coloured balls of sugar used chiefly for decorating cakes etc.
C. Darwin For many, perhaps for hundreds of generations. Scott Fitzgerald Gatsby's notoriety, spread about by the hundreds who had accepted his hospitality. V. Glendinning Dame Rebecca had hundreds of friends.
A group or set of a hundred; spec. (a) a hundredweight; (b) (obsolete exc. dial.) a hundred years, a century. LOE.
Hist. In England (and later Ireland): a subdivision of a county having its own court. Formerly also, such a court. Cf. WAPENTAKE. LOE.
CHILTERN HUNDREDS.
b. A subdivision of a county in the State of Delaware, and in colonial times also in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. E17.
Ten times ten as an abstract number, the symbol(s) or figure(s) representing this (100 in arabic numerals, C, C, in roman); pl. after a numeral, that number of multiples of ten times ten as an abstract number, the symbol(s) or figure(s) representing any such number (as 900). ME.
b. In pl. The digit denoting the number of hundreds. LME.
c. The hundredth of a set or series with numbered members, the one designated one hundred, (usu. number one hundred, number a hundred, or with specification, as Psalm One Hundred). E17.
In the sale of certain commodities, esp. herring and other fishes: a quantity greater than a hundred (of). Esp. in great hundred, long hundred, six score, 120. LME.
In pl. The numbers from 100 to 109 (or 199) inclusive, esp. as denoting years of a decade or century or units of a scale of temperature. E20.
Scott Fitzgerald The dark..saloons of the faded-gilt nineteen-hundreds.
In pl. (After a numeral.) Used to represent the two noughts in a figure expressing the exact hour, in expressing time by the twenty-four hour clock, as twenty hundred hours = 20.00 hours, 8.0 pm. M20.
b. adjective. After an article, possessive, etc: ten times ten (a cardinal numeral represented by 100 in arabic numerals, C, C in roman); hyperbol. a great many. After a numeral or quantifier: multiples of ten times ten. LOE.
a hundred and one hyperbol. a countless number of. not a hundred miles from joc. very close to (this place etc.). the Hundred Days the period of the restoration of Napoleon Bonaparte, after his escape from Elba. the Hundred Flowers (the period of) an ideological movement in Communist China in the summer of 1957, when people were invited to voice their criticisms of the regime. the Hundred Years War, the Hundred Years' War the intermittent war between England and France from 1337 to 1453, arising out of the claim of the English kings to the French crown.
G. B. Shaw Anything from sixpence to several hundred guineas. E. O'Neill Do you suppose I wouldn't prevent thatfor a hundred reasons? E. Waugh The whole place hummed from its hundred ventilators. S. Hill A house two hundred yards across the green.
Comb.: Forming compound numerals (cardinal or ordinal) with numerals below 100, as 120 (read a hundred and twenty, one hundred and twenty, (N. Amer.) also a hundred twenty, one hundred twenty), 120th (read hundred and twentieth, one hundred and twentieth), or (cardinals) with multiples of 1000, as 1200 (read one thousand two hundred or, esp. in dates, twelve hundred). Special combs., as hundred-per-center N. Amer. a thoroughgoing or uncompromising person; hundred-pounder a cannon throwing a shot that weighs one hundred pounds.