Meanings
plural canakins · alternative canikin · alternative cannakin · alternative cannikin · alternative kannakin
- archaicA little can or cup.
Then, Tashtego, lad, I'd have ye hold a canakin to the jet, and we'd drink round it!
1851, Herman Melville, chapter 84, in Moby Dick2 more examples
And let me the canakin clink, clink; And let me the canakin clink A soldier's a man; A life's but a span; Why, then, let a soldier drink. Some wine, boys!
c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]That our Dutchman was a gay fellow, who loved, to clink the canakin and spend his leisure in social jollification, his face and art most royally proclaim.
1935 December 7, The Herald, Melbourne, page 37, column 5
Origin
- Middle Dutchkanneken
- Englishcanakin
From Middle Dutch kanneken, cannekijn (“a little can”), equivalent to can + -kin.
More words from Middle Dutch
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
canakin. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/canakin
“canakin.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/canakin. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “canakin,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/canakin.
Source: canakin on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.