canned, ppl. a.
(kænd)
[f. can v.3]
a. Put up or preserved in a can; tinned.
| 1859 R. B. Marcy Prairie Traveler 31 Canned vegetables are very good for campaigning. 1865 Morn. Star 13 Apr., Canned milk. 1879 J. W. Boddam-Whetham Roraima 140 note, A small quantity of canned provisions. 1881 Newspr., Canned beef and mutton. 1888 E. H. D'Avigdor Antipodean Notes xxiv. 173 Diggers all use immense quantities of jam and ‘canned’ fruits. 1937 Daily Express 24 Feb. 16/5 Canned beer has..flopped in Great Britain. 1954 Sun (Baltimore) 11 Dec. B. 15/2 The park area{ddd}where gather ‘boys who like canned heat’. |
b. fig. Mechanically or artificially reproduced, esp. of music.
| 1904 ‘O. Henry’ Cabbages & Kings vi. 93 ‘The Latin races..are peculiarly adapted to be victims of the phonograph.’ ‘Then,’ says I, ‘we'll export canned music to the Latins.’ 1908 Westm. Gaz. 5 Aug. 2/2 The latest invention is the ‘canned speech’ delivered by a gramophone. 1930 Punch 2 July 21/1 ‘Canned music’, by which is meant music transmitted by mechanism along with the film instead of being played by the theatre band. 1934 B.B.C. Year-Book 117 Broadcasting has been derided as ‘canned’ entertainment. 1959 Camb. Rev. 7 Feb. 321/1 The film as pictures (not merely as canned drama). |
c. Intoxicated, ‘tight’. slang.
| 1914 C. Mackenzie Sinister Street II. iv. ii. 882 She was a bit canned that night, and I suppose I'd had one or two myself. 1926 ‘J. J. Connington’ Death at Swaythling Court iv. 70 Being rather canned, he sticks the candle on the table, and forgets all about it. |