Meanings
canner1
plural canners
- Someone or something which cans.
One machine in which Mr. Taylor takes special pride is a salmon canner, which engulfs a whole salmon, decapitates and decaudates it, skins it, blows out its viscera, cuts it into pieces, deposits them in the can, sterilizes them […]
1937, Technology Review, volume 40, page 100 - A large pot used for processing jars when preserving food, either in a boiling water bath or by capturing steam to elevate the pressure and temperature.
- USslangSomeone who lives off container deposit refunds from recycling.
Yet many canners told me that they can easily earn a daily wage of 20 or 30 dollars; each then recycles upward of 600 containers every day.
2007 May 27, Jon Mooallem, “The Unintended Consequences of Hyperhydration”, in New York Times, page 71 more example
Among the crowds are ordinary working people shopping at the Pathmark, as well as down-and-out "canners" bringing their cans and bottles to the recycling station on East 124th Street.
2009, Camilo Jose Vergara, 125th and Lex: The most complicated, disturbing, and lively intersection in New York City. A photo essay., Slate.com, December 3, 2009 - An animal yielding inferior meat best suited to canning.
Bulls and cows used for breeding, when finally sent to market, are inferior for dressed-beef production. Bulls are demanded especially for sausage and similar products. Cows are largely used as cutters and canners […]
1905, United States. Bureau of Corporations, Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on the Beef Industry, page 89
Canner2
Origin
canner · noun
- Middle Englishcanner“maker of cans”
- Englishcanner
From Middle English canner (“maker of cans”), originally from the noun canne and equivalent to can + -er (occupational suffix). The modern senses reflect other meanings of the suffix -er.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Canner · proper noun
Occupational surname for a maker or seller of cans, from can + -er.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with canner
Cite this entry
canner. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/canner
“canner.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/canner. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “canner,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/canner.
Source: canner on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.