100s & 1000s

Noun

hundreds and thousands pl (plural only)

1. (plural, plural-only) An indefinite but emphatically large number.
   • 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.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...
2. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, plural, plural-only) Tiny 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

   Synonyms:

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