See Also: cannon(1)(dictionary)
cannon(2)(dictionary)
cannon(encyclopedia)
Cannon(medicine)
cannon wave(medicine)
cannon sound(medicine)
cannon bone(medicine)
Cannon's theory(medicine)
Cannon's ring(medicine)
Cannon's point(medicine)

cannon(1) (iou)



cannon noun. LME.
[Old & mod. French canon from Italian cannone augm. of canna tube from Latin: see CANE noun1, -OON. In sense 3 alt. of CAROM.]
a. Hist. (Pl. usu. same.) A piece of ordnance; a gun of a size requiring it to be mounted for firing. LME.
b. An automatic shell-firing gun in an aircraft. E20.
a. A tube; a cylindrical bore. L16-E18.
b. In full cannon-bit. A smooth round bit for a horse. L16.
c. Hist. In pl. = CANIONS. L16.
d. In full cannon curl. A cylindrical curl in the hair, worn horizontally. E19.
e. Mechanics. A hollow cylinder moving independently on a shaft. L19.
A stroke in billiards in which the player's cue-ball is made to hit both other balls; transf. a rebounding collision. E19.
nursery cannon: see NURSERY 6.
A pickpocket. US slang. E20.
Phrases: loose cannon: see LOOSE adjective.
Comb.: cannon-ball Hist. a solid spherical projectile fired by a cannon; cannon-ball tree a S. American tree, Couroupita guianensis, bearing globular woody fruit; cannon-bit: see sense 2b above; cannon-bone a tube-shaped bone between a horse's hock and fetlock; cannon-fodder [translating German Kanonenfutter] men regarded merely as material to be consumed in war; cannon-shot (a) the shooting of a cannon; (b) ammunition fired from a cannon, cannon-balls; (c) the range of a cannon.
cannonry noun the use or discharge of cannon; artillery: L16.