| Tonnage 1. (n.) The weight of goods carried in a boat or a ship. 2. (n.) 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 . 3. (n.) A duty or impost on vessels, estimated per ton, or, a duty, toll, or rate payable on goods per ton transported on canals. 4. (n.) The whole amount of shipping estimated by tons; as, the tonnage of the United States. See Ton. Thesaurus Entries accommodation, argosy, avoirdupois, beef, beefiness, bottoms, burden, capacity, carriage, cartage, content, cordage, deadweight, drayage, expressage, fatness, fleet, flotilla, freight, freightage, gravity, gross weight, haulage, heaviness, heft, heftiness, limit, line, liveweight, measure, merchant fleet, merchant navy, navy, neat weight, net, net weight, overbalance, overweight, ponderability, ponderosity, ponderousness, poundage, quantity, room, shipping, ships, space, stowage, underweight, volume, weight, weightiness, whaling fleet |