cannon

plural cannons

1. countableuncountableA 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.

   Holonyms: gun, field gun; howitzer; mortar

2. countableuncountableAny similar device for shooting material out of a tube.

   water cannon; glitter cannon; confetti cannon; potato cannon

   1. countableuncountableaeronauticsAn autocannon.
3. countableuncountableA bone of a horse’s leg, between the fetlock joint and the knee or hock.
4. countableuncountablecookingA rolled and filleted loin of meat.

   a canon of beef or lamb

5. countableuncountableA cannon bit.
6. countablehistoricaluncountableA large muzzle-loading artillery piece.

   Near-synonym: gun (often synonymous)

   Synonyms: gun

7. countableuncountableball gamesA 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. countablefigurativelyinformaluncountableball gamesThe arm of a player who can throw well.

   He’s got a cannon out in right.

9. countableuncountableengineeringA hollow cylindrical piece carried by a revolving shaft, on which it may, however, revolve independently.
10. countablehistoricaluncountableA 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.

    The pauldrons are rather weak, but the cannons of the vambraces are good and come from an Italian armour of considerably earlier date, for they have the tulip form of the first half of the century.

    1949, The Connoisseur

    2 more examples

    During the second half of the century the upper cannons were often joined to the pauldrons […] Here the cannons and the couter, although separate, are joined together when worn by the points securing them to the arming […]

    1972, Claude Blair, European Armour: Circa 1066 to Circa 1700

    The breastplate was now usually globular in shape with attached tassets. The arm defenses were almost always in one piece, the lower and upper cannons joined permanently to the couter with internal leathers and rivets, and the whole frequently also joined permanently to the pauldron.

    2007, Kelly DeVries, Robert Douglas Smith, Medieval Weapons: An Illustrated History of Their Impact, ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 178

11. alternativeuncountablemediaAlternative form of canon (“a large size of type”).
12. countableuncountableboard gamesA piece which moves horizontally and vertically like a rook but captures another piece by jumping over a different piece in the line of attack.
13. UScountableslanguncountableA pickpocket.

    A good pickpocket is known to his fellows as a pistol. Rufus Dayne is a cannon. One of the best pickpockets in the country, he makes close to a million dollars a year and has no criminal record at all.

    2009, James Thomson, Bedlam City: Savage Worlds Edition, page 377

    1 more example

    I also learned never to conspicuoulsy^([sic]) watch a cannon while he was working. Pickpockets dislike being watched, even by those who may be "right," because they become uneasy and clumsy and feel conspicuous.

    1977, Robert S. Weppner, Street ethnography, page 70

present singular third person cannons · participle present cannoning · participle past cannoned · past cannoned

1. To bombard with cannons.
2. ball gamesTo 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.

   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.

   2011 September 2, “Wales 2-1 Montenegro”, in BBC

4. To collide or strike violently, especially so as to glance off or rebound.

   She ran down the stairs which she had come up so nervously that morning and cannoned into Edmund at the bottom.

   1952, C. S. Lewis, chapter 11, in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Collins, published 1998

   1 more example

   […] he heard the right-hand goal post crack as a pony cannoned into it—crack, splinter, and fall like a mast.

   1898, Rudyard Kipling, “The Maltese Cat”, in The Day's Work

1. misspellingslanglifestyleMisspelling of canon.

1. misspellingslanglifestyleMisspelling of canon.

plural Cannons · alternative Channon

1. A surname.

   The hearing in front of Judge Aileen M. Cannon at a federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Fla., could touch on other issues, including the scheduling of the trial.

   2023 July 18, Charlie Savage, “Trump Documents Hearing Could Set Off Lengthy Fight Over Classified Evidence”, in The New York Times