cannon - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

A cannon (artillery piece)

Attested from around 1400 as Middle English canon, canoun, from Old French canon, from Italian cannone, from Latin canna, from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna, “reed”), from Akkadian 𒄀 (qanû, “reed”), from Sumerian 𒄀𒈾 (gi.na) (for more, see cane). Doublet of canyon. This spelling was not fixed until about 1800.[1][2]

cannon (countable and uncountable, plural cannons or (chiefly UK) **cannon)[3]

  1. A complete assembly, consisting of an artillery tube and a breech mechanism, firing mechanism or base cap, which is a component of a gun, howitzer or mortar, which may include muzzle appendages.[4]
    Holonyms: gun, field gun; howitzer; mortar
  2. Any similar device for shooting material out of a tube.
    water cannon; glitter cannon; confetti cannon; potato cannon
    1. (military, chiefly aviation) An autocannon.
  3. A bone of a horse’s leg, between the fetlock joint and the knee or hock.
  4. (cooking) A rolled and filleted loin of meat.
    a canon of beef or lamb
  5. A cannon bit.
  6. (historical) A large muzzle-loading artillery piece.
    Coordinate terms: firearm, small arm
    Near-synonym: gun (often synonymous)
  7. (sports, billiards, snooker, pool) A carom.
    In English billiards, a cannon is when one’s cue ball strikes the other player’s cue ball and the red ball on the same shot; and it is worth two points.
  8. (baseball, figuratively, informal) The arm of a player who can throw well.
    He’s got a cannon out in right.
  9. (engineering) A hollow cylindrical piece carried by a revolving shaft, on which it may, however, revolve independently.
  10. (historical) A cylindrical item of plate armor protecting the arm, particularly one of a pair of such cylinders worn with a couter, the upper cannon protecting the upper arm and the lower cannon protecting the forearm.
    Coordinate terms: rerebrace, vambrace
  1. (printing, uncountable) Alternative form of canon (“a large size of type”).
  2. (xiangqi) A piece which moves horizontally and vertically like a rook but captures another piece by jumping over a different piece in the line of attack.
  3. (US, slang) A pickpocket.

artillery piece

billiard shot

baseball: good throwing hand

cannon (third-person singular simple present cannons, present participle cannoning, simple past and past participle cannoned)

  1. To bombard with cannons.
  2. (sports, billiards, snooker, pool) To play the carom billiard shot; to strike two balls with the cue ball.
    The white cannoned off the red onto the pink.
  3. To fire something, especially spherical, rapidly.
    • 2011 September 2, “Wales 2-1 Montenegro”, in BBC‎[1]:
      Montenegro had hardly threatened in the second period but served notice they were still potent as Nikola Vukcevic took a smart pass from Jovetic and cannoned a shot off Hennessey's shins.
  4. To collide or strike violently, especially so as to glance off or rebound.
    • 1898, Rudyard Kipling, “The Maltese Cat”, in The Day's Work‎[2]:
      […] he heard the right-hand goal post crack as a pony cannoned into it—crack, splinter, and fall like a mast.

billiards: to play carom shot

to fire something rapidly

Xiangqi pieces in English (see also: xiangqi) (layout · text)
general advisor elephant horse chariot cannon soldier
  1. ^ Barnhart, Robert K.; Editor. The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology. 1995 HarperResource/HarperCollins P.102.
  2. ^ Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (December 26, 2006).
  3. ^ Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus, 4th ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2013).
  4. ^ (JP 1-02 Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms).

cannon

  1. (fandom slang) Misspelling of canon.

cannon

  1. (fandom slang) Misspelling of canon.