▪ I. cannon, n.1
(ˈkænən)
Also 6 (chanon), 6–8 canon.
[In 16th c. also canon, Sc. cannoun, a. F. canon (14th c. in Littré) = Pr. canon, Cat. canó, Sp. cañon, It. cannone, lit. ‘great tube, barrel’, augm. f. canna, canne cane, reed, pipe, tube. The spellings canon and cannon occur side by side down nearly to 1800, though the latter is the more frequent after c 1660.]
† 1. A tube, a cylindrical bore. Obs.
| 1588 Lucar Tartaglia's Arte Shooting 30 How long the canon or concauitie of every Peece of Artillerie ought to bee. 1604 E. G. D'Acosta's Hist. Indies v. ix. 353 A small canon of cristall, in length half a foote. 1611 Cotgr., Trajectoire, the cannon, or taile of a perfuming funnell. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Countr. Farm 358 You must make fast the foresaid Canon of the said barke of the new branch. |
2. a. A piece of ordnance; a gun or fire-arm of a size which requires it to be mounted for firing. (The leading current sense.)
The following varieties are mentioned in the 16th–17th c.:
Canon Royall, height 8½ in.; shot 66 lbs.
Canon, height 8 in.; shot 60 lbs.
Canon Sarpentine, height 7½ in.; shot 53
1/
3 lbs.
Bastard Canon, height 7 in.; shot 41
1/
4 lbs.
Demy Canon, height 6½ in.; shot 30
1/
4 lbs.
Canon Petro, height 6 in.; shot 24
1/
4 lbs.
For the various ancient forms of cannon or great guns, see
aspic,
basilisk,
bastard,
carthoun,
culverin,
dragon,
falcon,
falconet,
saker,
serpentine,
siren, etc.
| 1525 T. Magnus in State Papers (1836) IV. 325, 5 gret gonnes of brasse called cannons, besides sondery other fawcons. 1545 Earl of Shrewsbury ibid. V. 441 To sende unto Tynmowthe..a cannon, a saker, etc. 1570 Levins Manip. 163 A chanon, gunne, tormenti genus. 1573 Diurn. Occurrents (1833) 330 Thrie houlkis of Ingland, ladunit with ane cannone ryell, four singill cannounis..with ane Scottis peice les nor ane cannoun. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. ii. vii. 153 Then, a Soldier..Seeking the bubble Reputation Euen in the Canons mouth. 1604 E. Grimstone Siege of Ostend 189 Canons of wood, a fadom long, with great bandes of Yron. 1633 T. Stafford Pac. Hib. xvi. (1821) 387 An other Cannon was brought up, and planted by the Demy-cannon. 1705 Stanhope Paraphr. I. 18 They march directly up to the mouth of the loaded Canon. 1750 Beawes Lex Mercat. (1752) 832 Iron Bars, Cannons, and Bullets. 1858 Greener Gunnery 97 Mr. Nasmyth, whose monster cannon..was to astonish the whole world. 1864 H. Jones Holiday Papers 219 The Irishman's recipe for a cannon ‘Take a long hole, and pour some brass round it’. |
b. Also
collect. (
= ‘artillery, ordnance’) and
pl.| 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iii. 56 Thou hast talk'd..Of Basiliskes, of Canon, Culuerin. 1666 Pepys Diary (1879) III. 495 In the trial every one of the great guns, the whole cannon of seven..broke in pieces. 1760 Keysler's Trav. I. 184 The largest cannon here are about fifty pounders. 1855 Tennyson Charge Light Brigade iii, Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them Volley'd and thunder'd. |
c. phr.| a 1639 Spottiswood Hist. Ch. Scotl. v. (1655) 239 He was apprehended, and by sentence of the Council of War condemned to ride the Cannon. |
d. A pistol, a revolver.
U.S. slang.| 1901 ‘J. Flynt’ World of Graft 137 The thief had him covered with his ‘cannon’. 1915 [see sense 10 below]. 1926 J. Black You can't Win xiii. 185 One of them.. started to lug out his ‘cannon’. |
e. A shell-firing gun in an aircraft.
| 1919 Radio Pamphlet No. 30 (Signal Corps, U.S. Army) 3 These are..biplanes, mounting two to six or more machine guns and often a cannon. 1921 Flight XIII. 294/1 The machine carries one pilot and two gunners, operating in all eight machine-guns and one cannon. 1949 F. Maclean Eastern Approaches iii. viii. 394 He showed me how the rear cannon fired, and how the intercom. worked. |
3. Mech. a. A barrel or hollow cylindrical piece capable of revolving independently on a shaft, with a greater or less velocity than that of the shaft.
b. The perforated barrel of a watch-key.
4. A smooth round bit. Also
cannon-bit.
| 1596 Spenser F.Q. i. vii. 37 Could manage fair His stubborne steed with curbed canon bitt. 1614 Markham Cheap Husb. i. ii. (1668) 24 A sweet smooth Cannon bit, with a plain watering chain. 1617 ― Caval. ii. 50 The first byt a horse should weare, should be a smooth Cannon. 1617 J. Lane Squire's T. 273 The bitt, a canon bytt. |
5. The part of a bell by which it is suspended; also called the
ear. See also
canon n.2 14.
| 1872 Ellacombe Bells of Ch. i. 4 The ear or cannon on its top or crown, by which it is hung..in the tower. |
6. An empty zinc retort; see
quot.| 1871 Trans. Amer. Inst. Mining Eng. I. 74 Beneath the retorts is placed a row of six so-called cannons to break the heat. |
7. a. Billiards. A stroke in which the player's ball is made to hit one of the other balls in such a way as to glance from it and strike the second.
(Also called
carambole and
carrom, of which
cannon appears to be a perversion; probably influenced by the notion of a ‘heavy shot’.)
| 1839 E. Kentfield Billiards 16 Canons..constitute by far the most interesting part of Billiards. 1844 Mardon Billiards 4 Scoring canons and hazards. 1850 Thackeray Pendennis xxiii, ‘I wish to the doose your wife was dead.’ ‘So do I. That's a cannon by Jove.’ 1863 M. E. Braddon J. Marchmont II. i. 3, I am afraid she'll never make a cannon. 1872 Black Adv. Phaeton xi. 157 Even when he got a good chance of a cannon, the smallness of the balls caused him to fail entirely. |
b. transf. An act of cannoning (see
cannon v. 3 b); a collision between persons or animals (as in racing).
| 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) vii. ii, Briskly stooping to pick up a lady's fan when two other gentlemen are doing the same, and so making a cannon with your head against both of theirs. 1876 Coursing Cal. 35 Bellini came best out of a cannon, and never let Hawkseye have a look in, except to kill. |
8. attrib.| 1599 Marston Sco. Villanie ii. vii. 203 His new stampt complement, his Cannon oathes. a 1668 Davenant Siege Rhodes Poems (1673) 40 With smoke of Cannon-Clouds. 1885 R. Buchanan Master of Mine I. xii. 175 Gusts, fitful though terrible—very cannon blasts of air. |
9. Comb., as
cannon-bore,
cannon-breech,
cannon-bullet,
cannon-casting,
cannon-fever,
cannon-flash,
cannon-mouth,
cannon-reek,
cannon-smoke;
cannon-hot,
cannon-moulded,
cannon-mouthed,
cannon-smoked adjs.;
† cannon-roared pa. pple.;
cannon-clock, a cannon with a burning-glass so fixed over the vent as to fire the priming on the sun's reaching the meridian;
cannon-fly (see
quot.);
cannon-fodder [
tr. G.
kanonenfutter;
cf. Shakespeare's
food for powder (1
Hen. IV, iv. ii. 72)]: men regarded merely as material to be consumed in war;
cannon-lock, a contrivance for exploding the charge of a cannon;
cannon-metal, a variety of bronze used for cannon;
cannon-mouth, the mouth of a cannon-bit;
cannon pinion, the perforated pinion which carries the minute hand of a watch, and drives the minute wheel;
cannon-royal (see sense 1);
cannon-stove, a stove for heating, shaped somewhat like a mortar. See also
cannon-ball, -basket, etc.
| 1655 Marquis of Worcester Cent. Inv. §64 So clear from danger, that..a Pound of Butter did not melt being laid upon the *Cannon-britch. |
| 1605 1st Pt. Jeronimo in Hazl. Dodsley IV. 382 Spleens big as a *cannon-bullet. 1724 Watts Logic i. ii. §4 It is slow when compared with a cannon-bullet. |
| 1833 Edin. Rev. LVII. 381 That..exciting sensation known to military men by the name of the *cannon-fever. |
| 1860 Hawthorne Marb. Faun xxix. 229 The last *cannon-flash of a retreating army. |
| 1787 T. Best Art of Angling (ed. 2) 114 The Oak Ask, Woodcock, *Canon or Down hill fly. 1799 G. Smith Laborat. II. 297 The oak-fly. Some call this..the cannon-fly. |
| 1891 *Cannon-fodder [in N.E.D.]. 1898 G. B. Shaw Our Theatres in Nineties (1932) III. 287 Peter [the Great], regarding children as future cannon-fodder, was as terribly severe on infanticide as he was infinitely indulgent to illegitimacy. 1950 Partridge Here, There & Everywhere 65 Cannon-fodder was never very popular with British troops. |
| 1567 in Tytler Hist. Scotl. (1864) III. 264 Knox thundered out..*cannon-hot against her. |
| 1651 Davenant Gondibert ii. xxxv, Deep *Cannon Mouth'd experienc'd Hounds. |
| 1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 178 A long boss or pipe called the *cannon pinion. The cannon pinion drives the minute wheel. |
| 1598 Barret Theor. Warres v. iii. 134, 5000 Quintals or Centenaires of *Cannon powder. 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. xiv. 71 Serpentine powder in old time was in meale, but now corned and made stronger, and called Canon corne powder. |
| 1599 Nashe Lent. Stuffe (1871) 91 When the fame of the king of fishes was *canon-roared in her ears. |
| 1813 Sir R. Wilson Diary II. 147 My new order ribbon: it is not in itself beautiful, but it becomes so when *cannon-smoked. |
10. A thief,
spec. a clever pickpocket.
U.S. slang.| 1915 Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Slang 22 Cannon. General currency. A revolver. In pickpocket parlance it signifies a pickpocket of indefinite order. 1936 Evening News 9 Dec. 8/5 The art of the ‘dip’ or ‘cannon’, as these light-fingered gentry are known in the underworld, probably reached its climax in the person of ‘Diamond Dick’. 1955 D. W. Maurer in Amer. Dial. Soc. XXIV. 89 Cannon, an intensification..of gun was, and still is, used with some sense of indicating a better-than-ordinary pick-pocket. |
▪ II. ˈcannon, n.2 [Cf. canion (also spelt cannon), and cannon n.1] A cylindrical or sausage-like curl, properly horizontal, like the canions of breeches. Hence
cannon curls.
| c 1800 Mem. Mary Somerville iii. (1873) 41 He wore a powdered wig, with cannons at the ears, and a pigtail. 1857 Geo. Eliot Scenes Clerical Life, Janet's Repentance v. 218 With..sandy hair, which was this morning arranged in taller cannon curls than usual. Ibid. II. 190 Old lawyer Pittman's daughters with cannon curls surmounted with large hats. |
▪ III. ˈcannon, v. [f. the n.: cf. It. cannonare.] 1. intr. To discharge a cannon.
trans. To cannonade.
| 1691 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) II. 170 To learn and use the art of canooning and bombarding. 1693 Mem. Ct. Teckely i. 43 At break of day they began to Cannon the Imperialists. 1865 Spectator 7 Jan. 5 He must..cannon them into material civilization. |
2. Billiards. To play one's ball so as to make a
cannon (see sense 7). Also (of the ball), to strike and rebound.
| 1844 Mardon Billiards 11 Any bungler can canon full upon a ball. 1859 J. Lang Wand. India 114 He cannoned all over the table, went in off the red and white. 1864 Spectator 531 The art of cannoning as it were, against the miserable, the ball ultimately meant to strike the great and powerful. 1873 Bennett & ‘Cavendish’ Billiards 225 If the spot-white is cannoned on full, the balls will be left together. |
3. trans. To strike with rebounding collision (
prop. laterally or obliquely), to come into violent collision with.
| 1864 Vambéry Trav. C. Asia 197 Our heads were continually cannoning each other like balls on a billiard table. |
b. intr. (with various preps.)
| 1872 Daily News 25 Mar., Franc Huron and Acton cannoned, and both fell. 1879 F. T. Pollok Sport Brit. Burmah I. 111 He [a blind bear] used to get loose and run up the first tree against which he cannoned. 1880 M. E. Braddon Just as I am xvii. 106 Scampering over hedges and ditches, and cannoning at gates. |
▪ IV. cannon obs. form of
canon.