tonnern.
/ˈtʌnə/ In combination with prefixed numeral: a vessel of (so many) tons burden; e.g. forty-tonner, a vessel of forty tons burden: see ton n.1 2. Also, a lorry of (so many) tons weight.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > vessel with reference to qualities or attributes > [noun] > with reference to behaviour at sea > that is of so many tons
forty-tonner1851
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > powered vehicle > motor lorry, truck, or van > [noun] > truck or lorry > of specific number of tons weight
tonner1959
1851 A. O. Hall Manhattaner 177 A seven hundred tonner,..full of Dutch emigrants.
1883 Harper's Mag. Aug. 443/1 The forty-tonners..carried off most of the prizes.
1891 E. Kinglake Austral. at Home 78 There is generally a race of some description, either for forty tonners, ten tonners, half-deckers, or the plain open sailing boat.
1891 Lit. World 20 Nov. 419/2 The Vancouver, one of the splendid 5,000 tonners of the White Star Line.
1959 I. Jefferies Thirteen Days iv. 43 The Arab six-tonner driver.
1978 R. Mark Office of Constable iii. 38 Came the great day when the survivors were packed with their kit into a three-tonner en route for Sandhurst.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1913; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
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n.1851