hun·dred / ˈhəndrid/ • cardinal number (pl. -dreds or (with numeral or quantifying word) -dred ) (a/one hundred) the number equivalent to the product of ten and ten; ten more than ninety; 100: a hundred yards away there are just a hundred of us here. (Roman numeral: c or C.) ∎  (hundreds) the numbers from 100 to 999: an unknown number, probably in the hundreds, had already been lost. ∎  (hundreds) several hundred things or people: it cost hundreds of dollars. ∎  (usu. hundreds) inf. an unspecified large number: hundreds of letters poured in. ∎  (the —— hundreds) the years of a specified century: the early nineteen hundreds. ∎  one hundred years old: you must be over a hundred! ∎  one hundred miles per hour. ∎  a hundred-dollar bill. ∎  (chiefly in spoken English) used to express whole hours in the twenty-four-hour system: thirteen hundred hours. PHRASES: a (or one) hundred percent entirely; completely: I'm one hundred percent sure. ∎  inf. completely fit and healthy: I wasn't exactly one hundred percent. ∎  inf. maximum effort and commitment: he always gave one hundred percent for the team. DERIVATIVES: hun·dred·fold / -ˌfōld/ adj. & adv. hun·dredth / ˈhəndrid[unvoicedth]; ˈhəndrit[unvoicedth]/ ordinal number . ORIGIN: late Old English, from hund ‘hundred’ (from an Indo-European root shared with Latin centum and Greek hekaton) + a second element meaning ‘number’; of Germanic origin and related to Dutch honderd and German hundert. The noun sense ‘subdivision of a county’ is of uncertain origin: it may originally have been equivalent to a hundred hides of land (see hide³ ).

hundred the number equivalent to the product of ten and ten; ten more than ninety.

In Anglo-Saxon England, a hundred was a subdivision of a county or shire, having its own court.
Hundred Days the period of the restoration of Napoleon Bonaparte, after his escape from Elba, ending with his abdication on 22 June 1815; the immediate source was a speech delivered by Louis de Chabrol de Volvic, prefect of Paris, to Louis XVIII in 1815.
hundred-eyed in Greek mythology, the epithet of Argus.
Hundred Flowers a period of debate in China 1956–7, when, under the slogan ‘Let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend’, citizens were invited to voice their opinions of the communist regime. It was forcibly ended after social unrest and fierce criticism of the government, with those who had voiced their opinions being prosecuted.
Hundred Years War a war between France and England, conventionally dated 1337–1453. The war consisted of a series of conflicts in which successive English kings attempted to dominate France, and began when Edward III claimed the throne of France following the death of the last Capetian king. Despite a number of English military successes, most notably Crécy, Poitiers, and (in 1415) Agincourt, the English were unable to consolidate their advantages. Under the regency of Henry VI, control of conquered territory was gradually lost to French forces, revitalized in the first instance by Joan of Arc. With the exception of Calais, all English conquests had been lost by 1453.
hundredweight a unit of weight equal to one twentieth of an imperial or metric ton.

hundred in English history, a subdivision of a shire, first mentioned in the 10th cent. and surviving as a unit of local government into the 19th cent. It is thought that in origin the hundred comprised 100 geld hides, the geld hide being the basic Anglo-Saxon land unit for taxation purposes; but the hundreds varied considerably in size. The number of hundreds in a shire also varied, and their boundaries were continually changed. The hundred had its own court. The Saxon tithing groups, which had corporate responsibility for the crimes committed by their members, came before it, and personal pleas of debt and trespass were also brought there. Originally presided over by the king's reeves, the hundred courts continued to meet regularly every four weeks until the 13th cent., by which time many of them had been taken over by local lords. They gradually lost importance and from the 16th cent. had little more than a formal existence. In Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland, and Leicestershire the unit equivalent to the hundred was called a wapentake; in Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmorland, and Durham, a ward. Hundreds were also used as subdivisions of counties in some of the Thirteen Colonies, and continued to be used in Delaware as state legislative districts until the 1960s.

Bibliography: See H. M. Cam, The Hundred and the Hundred Rolls (1930, repr. 1963); F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (3d ed. 1971).

HUNDRED

HUNDRED. The hundred was a colonial administrative unit based on its English counterpart: an area occupied by one hundred families and served by local officials. In Virginia, the hundred began as a settlement of one hundred families but soon became a strictly territorial unit for judicial, military, and political purposes. In Maryland, hundreds were territorial units for elections, public levies, and preservation of the peace. In Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, the establishment of larger administrative units such as boroughs and counties diminished the function of hundreds, although they remained important subdivisions and continued to exist in many places in the early 2000s.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Carr, Lois Green, Philip D. Morgan, and Jean B. Russo, eds. Colonial Chesapeake Society. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988.

ShelbyBalik

Percy ScottFlippin

See alsoBorough ; Colonial Settlements .

hundred An administrative subdivision of an English SHIRE between the 10th century and the Local Government Act (1894), which established District Councils. Hundreds were probably based upon units of 100 hides. (A hide was a measure of land, calculated to be enough to support a family and its dependants, ranging from 25 to 50 ha. (60–120 acres) according to locality.) They did not exist in every shire. Their equivalents in the DANELAW were wapen-takes, in Kent lathes, in Yorkshire ridings, and in Sussex rapes. The hundred court of freeholders met once a month to deal with military defence, private pleas, tax levies, and to prepare indictments for the royal justices. The hundred bailiff served the sheriff's writs and the constable maintained law and order.

HUNDRED

A political subdivision in old England.

Under the Saxons, each shire or county in England was divided into a number of hundreds, which were made up of ten tithings each. The tithings were groups of ten families of freeholders. The hundred was governed by a high constable and had its own local court called the Hundred Court. The most remarkable feature of the hundred was the collective responsibility of all the inhabitants for the crimes or defaults of any individual member.

hundred
A. ten times ten.

B. division of a shire, reckoned as 100 hides of land. OE hundred = OS. hunderod (Du. honderd). (M)HG. hundert, ON. hundrað; Gmc., f. *χundam hundred, whence OE., OS. hund, OHG. hunt, Goth. (pl. only) hunda = L. centum, Gr. hekatōn, Lith. šim̄tás, OIr. cēt, Skr. śatá- Av. satəm :- IE. k̂ṃtóm; the ending is Gmc. *raþ- number (rel. RATIO).

hundred •ballad, salad •collard, Lollard, pollard •bicoloured (US bicolored), dullard, multicoloured (US multicolored), particoloured (US particolored), self-coloured (US self-colored), uncoloured (US uncolored), varicoloured (US varicolored), versicoloured (US versicolored) •enamored, Muhammad •ill-humoured (US ill-humored) •Seanad, unmannered •Leonard • synod • unhonoured •Bernard, gurnard •unhampered •leopard, shepherd •untempered •Angharad, Harrod •Herod • hundred • unanswered •uncensored • unsponsored •Blanchard • dastard • unchartered •bastard • unlettered • unsheltered •self-centred (US self-centered) • it'd •unfiltered • unregistered • unwatered •unaltered • dotard • untutored •uncluttered, unuttered •bustard, custard, mustard •method • unbothered • Harvard •unflavoured (US unflavored) •lily-livered, undelivered •undiscovered