Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CAN'ON-BIT, n.

That part of a bit let into a horse's mouth.

CAN'ON-ESS, n.

A woman who enjoys a prebend, affixed, by the foundation, to maids, without obliging them to make any vows or renounce the world. Encyc.

CANON'IC, or CA-NON'IC-AL, a. [L. canonicus.]

Pertaining to a canon; according to the canon or rule. Canonical books or canonical Scriptures, are those books of the Scriptures which are admitted by the canons of the church to be of divine origin. The Romish Church admits the Apocryphal books to be canonical; the Protestants reject them. Canonical hours, are certain stated times of the day, fixed by the ecclesiastical laws, or appropriated to the offices of prayer and devotion. In Great Britain, these hours are from eight o'clock to twelve in the forenoon, before and after which marriage can not be legally performed in the church. Encyc. Canonical obedience, is submission to the canons of a church, especially the submission of the inferior clergy to their bishops, and other religious orders to their superiors. Canonical punishments, are such as the church may inflict; as excommunication, degradation, penance, &c. Canonical life, is the method or rule of living prescribed by the ancient clergy who lived in community, a course of living prescribed for clerks, less rigid than the monastic and more restrained than the secular. Canonical sins, in the ancient church, were those for which capital punishment was indicted; as idolatry, murder, adultery, heresy, &c. Canonical letters, anciently, were letters which passed between the orthodox clergy, as testimonials of their faith, to keep up the Catholic communion, and to distinguish them from heretics. Canonical epistles, is an appellation given to those epistles of the New Testament which are called general or catholic. Encyc.

CA-NON'I-CAL-LY, adv.

In a manner agreeable to the canon.

CA-NON'I-CAL-NESS, n.

The quality of being canonical.

CA-NON'I-CALS, n. [plur.]

The full dress of the clergy, worn when they officiate.

CA-NON'I-CATE, n.

The office of a canon. Encyc.

CAN'ON-IST, n.

A professor of canon law; one skilled in the study and practice of ecclesiastical law.

CAN-ON-IST'IC, a.

Having the knowledge of a canonist.

CAN-ON-I-ZA'TION, n. [See Canonize.]

1. The act of declaring a man a saint, or rather the act of ranking a deceased person in the catalogue of saints, called a canon. This act is preceded by beatification, and by an examination into the life and miracles of the person; after which the pope decrees the canonization. Addison. Encyc.
2. The state of being sainted.

CAN'ON-IZE, v.t. [from canon.]

To declare a man a saint and rank him in the catalogue, called a canon.

CAN'ON-IZED, pp.

Declared to be a saint.

CAN'ON-IZ-ING, ppr.

Declaring to be a saint

CAN'ON-RY, or CAN'ON-SHIP, n.

An ecclesiastical benefice, in a cathedral or collegiate church, which has a prebend or stated allowance out of the revenues of the church commonly annexed to it. The benefice filled by a canon. A prebend may subsist without a canonry; but a canonicate is inseparable from a prebend. Ayliffe. Encyc.

CAN'O-PI-ED, a. [See Canopy.]

Covered with a canopy. Milton.

CAN'O-PY, n. [Gr. κωνωπειον, a pavilion or net spread over a bed to keep off gnats, from κωνωψ, a gnat.]

1. A covering over a throne or over a bed; more generally a covering over the head. So the sky is called a canopy, and a canopy is borne over the head in processions.
2. In architecture and sculpture, a magnificent decoration serving to cover and crown an altar, throne, tribunal, pulpit, chair or the like. Encyc.

CAN'O-PY, v.t.

To cover with a canopy. Dryden.

CAN'O-PY-ING, ppr.

Covering with a canopy.

CA-NO'ROUS, a. [L. canorus, from cano, to sing.]

Musical; tuneful. Brown.

CA-NO'ROUS-NESS, n.

Musicalness.

CANT, n.¹

1. A toss; a throw, thrust or push with a sudden jerk; as, to give a ball a cant. [This is the literal sense.]
2. A whining, singing manner of speech; a quaint, affected mode of uttering words, either in conversation or preaching.
3. The whining speech of beggars, as in asking alms and making complaints of their distresses.
4. The peculiar words and phrases of professional men; phrases often repeated, or not well authorized.
5. Any barbarous jargon in speech.
6. Whining pretension to goodness. Johnson.
7. Outcry, at a public sale of goods; a call for bidders at an auction. Swift. This use of the word is precisely equivalent to auction, auctio, a hawking, a crying out, or in the vulgar dialect, a singing out; but I believe not in use in the United States.

CANT, n.² [D. kant, a corner.]

A nich; a corner or retired place. B. Jonson. Cant-timbers, in a ship, are those which are situated at the two ends. Mar. Dict.

CANT, v.t. [L. canto, to sing; Sp. cantar, Port. id., to sing, to chant, to recite, to creak, to chirp, to whistle; It. cantare, to sing, to praise, to crow; Fr. chanter; Arm. cana; from L. cano, to sing. The primary sense is to throw, thrust or drive, as in can; a sense retained in the phrase, to cant over any thing. In singing, it implies a modulation or inflexion of voice. In Welsh, can, with a different sound of the vowel, signifies a song and white, L. cano, canus, and caneo. These are from the same root and have the same radical sense, to throw or shoot as rays of light, to shine, probably applied to the sun's morning rays. W. canu, to sing; Sanscrit, gana; Persic, kandam.]

1. In popular usage, to turn about, or to turn over, by a sudden push or thrust; as, to cant over a pail or a cask. Mar. Dict.
2. To toss; as, to cant a ball.
3. To speak with a whining voice, or an affected singing tone. [In this sense, it is usually intransitive.]
4. To sell by auction, or to bid a price at auction. Swift.

CANTABILE, n.

In music, denotes an elegant, smooth, graceful style.

CAN-TA'BRI-AN, a.

Pertaining to Cantabria, on the Bay of Biscay, in Spain.