hundreds and thousands

alternative 100s and 1000s · alternative 100s & 1000s

1. pluralplural onlyAn indefinite but emphatically large number.

   1949, A.S. Altekar, State and Government in Ancient India, reprinted 2001, page 148, It is clear that the sentence rather refers to numerous favours conferred upon the city and country population, the monetary value of which amounted to hundreds and thousands of rupees or contemporary coins.

   2 more examples

   1864 September 12, W. T. Sherman, letter to James M. Calhoun, E. E. Rawson and S. C. Wells, representing City Council of Atlanta, published in 1865, Joel Tyler Headley, Grant and Sherman: Their Campaigns and Generals, 2008, page 592, I myself have seen in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi, hundreds and thousands of women and children fleeing from your armies and desperadoes, hungry, and with bleeding feet.

   Have there not been hundreds and thousands of people injured in the depression in value of railroad securities?

   1901, United States Congress, Congressional Edition, volume 4338, page 167

2. CommonwealthIrelandUKpluralplural onlyTiny balls or strands of multicoloured sugar, sprinkled over ice cream, desserts or party foods.

   So there you have them - Onoda, Gund, Eclipse - all squidged together on the same spoon, their flavours intermingling under a bleeding crust of hundreds-and-thousands.

   2003, Neil Wills, “Surfers′ Paradise”, in Third Way, page 12

   1 more example

   Hundreds and thousands, commonly yet boringly called “sprinkles” in North America, are enough to make any child smile. Sprinkled over a cookie and sandwiched around creamy ice cream makes for sheer bliss!

   2007, Pippa Cuthbert, Lindsay Cameron Wilson, Cookies!, New Holland Publishers (UK), archived from the original on 17 Sep 2016, page 96

   Synonyms: nonpareil, nonpareils, sprinkles, jimmies, nonpareils, spreckles, sprinkles, sugar strands