cannon

Meanings

Noun

  • 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. It may include muzzle appendages.
  • Any similar device for shooting material out of a tube.
  • A bone of a horse's leg, between the fetlock joint and the knee or hock.
  • A cannon bit.
  • A large muzzle-loading artillery piece.
  • A carom.
  • The arm of a player that can throw well.
  • A hollow cylindrical piece carried by a revolving shaft, on which it may, however, revolve independently.
  • Alternative of canon
  • 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.

Verb

  • To bombard with cannons.
  • To play the carom billiard shot. To strike two balls with the cue ball
  • To fire something, especially spherical, rapidly.
  • To collide or strike violently, especially so as to glance off or rebound.

Origin

  • Attested from around 1400 as Middle English canon, from Middle French canon, from Italian cannone, from Latin canna, from Ancient Greek κάννα ("reed"), from Akkadian 𒄀 ("reed"), from Sumerian 𒄀𒈾. canyon.
  • This spelling was not fixed until about 1800.

Modern English dictionary

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