▪ I. canister
(ˈkænɪstə(r))
Also 8–9 cannister.
[ad. L. canistr-um bread basket, basket for fruit or flowers, ad. Gr. κάναστρον wicker basket (app. f. κάννα reed).]
1. A small case or box, usually of metal, for holding tea, coffee, shot, etc.
| 1711 Lond. Gaz. No. 4915/4 A silver Canister for Tea. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) C cc b, A case..or cannister, filled with case-shot. 1778 Johnson in Boswell (1887) III. 320 An author hunted with a cannister at his tail. 1828 J. W. Croker in Cr. Papers (1884) I. xiii. 404 A dog with a canister tied to his tail. |
b. R.C. Ch. A metal vessel used to hold the wafers before consecration.
† 2. An instrument used in racking off wine. Obs.
| 1678 Phillips, Cannister, a certain Instrument which Coopers use in the racking of [1696 off] the Wine. Hence in Bailey, etc. |
† 3. A quantity of tea from 75 to 100 lbs. weight.
| 1704 Worlidge Dict. Rust. et Urb. s.v., Canister; of Tea, 75 to 1 c. weight. 1715 in Kersey. 1721 in Bailey. |
4. A basket for bread, flowers, etc. [transl. or imitation of the Lat. or Gr.]
| 1697 Potter Antiq. Greece iv. viii. (1715) 233 Full Canisters of fragrant Lillies. 1697 Dryden Virg. æneid i. (1886) 30. 1718 Pope Odyss. i. 184 They heap the glittering canisters with bread. 1847 Emerson Poems, Monadnoc Wks. (Bohn) I. 435 Weave wood to canisters and mats. |
5. Short for canister-shot (see 6).
| 1801 Naval Chron. VI. 237 A brisk discharge of cannister and grape. 1833 Marryat P. Simple (1863) 331 ‘Put another dose of canister in.’ We did so, and then discharged the gun. 1863 Kinglake Crimea (1877) III. i. 121 The storm of..grape and canister came in blasts. |
6. Comb., as canisterful; canister-shot, a kind of case-shot consisting of ‘a number of small iron balls..packed in a cylindrical tin case fitting the bore of the gun from which it is to be fired’ (Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. s.v. Case-shot).
| 1809 Naval Chron. XXI. 25 Repeated broadsides of grape and cannister shot. 1810 Wellington in Gurw. Disp. VI. 376, 1000 rounds of canister shot. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. vi. 309 A canister-full of treasure. |
▪ II. ˈcanister, v.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. a. To put in a canister. b. To fasten a canister to the tail of (a dog). Hence ˈcanistered ppl. a.
| 1815 Hist. J. Decastro ii. 58 No dog canistered but I held his tail. 1843 A. Fonblanque in Life & Labours ii. (1874) 144 The canistered genii..in the ‘Arabian Nights’. 1862 Mark Napier Life Dundee II. 124 In the same spirit with which a cruel boy canisters a dog. |