Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CANK'ER-WORM, n.

A worm, destructive to trees or plants. In America, this name is given to a worm that, in some years, destroys the leaves and fruit of apple-trees. This animal springs from an egg deposited by a miller, that issues from the ground.

CANK'ER-Y, a.

Rusty.

CAN'NA-BINE, a. [L. cannabinus, from cannabis, hemp.]

Pertaining to hemp; hempen.

CAN'NEL-COAL, or CAN'DLE-COAL, n.

A hard, opake, inflammable fossil coal of a black color, sufficiently solid to be cut and polished. On fire it decrepitates and breaks into angular fragments. It is sometimes used for inkholders and toys. – Cleaveland.

CAN'NE-QUIN, n.

White cotton cloth from the East Indies, suitable for the Guinea trade. – Encyc.

CAN'NI-BAL, n. [This word is probably of Indian origin. Columbus, in his narration of his discoveries, mentions certain people called Canibals; but in the isles, he remarks, the natives lived in great fear of the Caribals, or people of Cariba, called in Hispaniola, Carib. Hence it seems that Canibals and Caribee are the same word differently pronounced.]

A human being that eats human flesh; a man-eater, or anthropophagite. – Bacon. Bentley.

CAN'NI-BAL-ISM, n.

1. The act or practice of eating human flesh by mankind.
2. Murderous cruelty; barbarity. – Burke.

CAN'NI-BAL-LY, adv.

In the manner of a cannibal. – Shak.

CAN'NON, n. [Fr. canon; Arm. canon or canol; D. kanon; G. kanone; Sp. cañon; Port. canham; It. cannone. Probably from L. canna, a tube. See Cane.]

A large military engine for throwing balls, and other instruments of death, by the force of gunpowder. Guns of this kind are made of iron or brass, and of different sizes, carrying balls from three or four pounds, to forty-eight pounds weight. In some countries, they have been made of much larger size. The smaller guns of this size are called field-pieces.

CAN-NON-ADE', n.

The act of discharging cannon and throwing balls, for the purpose of destroying an army, or battering a town, ship or fort. The term usually implies an attack of some continuance.

CAN-NON-ADE', v.i.

To discharge cannon; to play with large guns.

CAN-NON-ADE', v.t.

To attack with heavy artillery; to throw balls, or other deadly weapons, as chain-shot or langrage, against an enemy's army, town, fortress or ship; to batter with cannon shot.

CAN-NON-AD'ED, pp.

Attacked with cannon shot.

CAN-NON-AD'ING, ppr.

Battering with cannon shot.

CAN'NON-BALL, n.

A ball, usually made of cast iron, to be thrown from cannon. Cannon-bullet, of the like signification, is not now used. Cannon-balls were originally of stone.

CAN-NON-EER', or CAN-NON-IER', n.

A man who manages cannon; an engineer.

CAN'NON-PROOF, a.

Proof against cannon-shot.

CAN'NON-SHOT, n.

A ball for cannon; also, the range or distance a cannon will throw a ball.

CAN'NOT, v. [can and not.]

These words are usually united, but certainly without good reason; canst and not are never united.

CAN'NU-LAR, a. [L. canna, a tube.]

Tubular; having the form of a tube. – Encyc.

CA-NOE', n. [canoo'; Fr. canot; Sp. canoa; It. canoe or canon. This is said to be of Indian origin; as all the Spanish historians of America, when they first mention the word, give an explanation of it: “Illa in terram suis lintribus, quas canoas vocant, eduxerunt.” P. Martyr.]

1. A boat used by rude nations, formed of the body or trunk of a tree, excavated, by cutting or burning, into a suitable shape. Similar boats are now used by civilized men, for fishing and other purposes. It is impelled by a paddle, instead of an oar.
2. A boat made of bark or skins, used by savages.

CAN'ON, n. [Sax. canon; Fr. Sp. and Port. canon; It. canone; L. canon; Gr. κανων. Dr. Owen deduces the word from the Heb. קנה a cane, reed, or measuring rod. In Eth. ቀነነ kanan, signifies to set, to establish, to form a rule; whence canon, a rule. But this verb is probably from the noun. The word is from one of the roots in Class Gn, which signifies to set, or to strain. The Welsh unites it with the root of can, L. cano, to sing, W. canon, a song, a rule, a canon, from canu, to sing, L. cano. The sense of canon is that which is set or established.]

1. In ecclesiastical affairs, a law, or rule of doctrine or discipline, enacted by a council and confirmed by the sovereign; a decision of matters in religion, or a regulation of policy or discipline, by a general or provincial council.
2. A law or rule in general.
3. The genuine books of the Holy Scriptures, called the sacred canon, or general rule of moral and religious duty, given by inspiration.
4. A dignitary of the church; a person who possesses a prebend or revenue allotted for the performance of divine service in a cathedral or collegiate church. A cardinal canon is one attached to a church, incardinatus, as a priest to a parish. Domicellary canons, are young canons, not in orders, having no right in any particular chapters. Expectative canons, having no revenue or prebend, but having the title and dignities of canons, a voice in the chapter and a place in the choir, till a prebend should fall. Foreign canons, such as did not officiate in their canonries; opposed to mansionary or residentiary canons. Lay, secular, or honorary canons, laymen admitted out of honor or respect, into some chapter of canons. Regular canons, who live in monasteries or in community, and who, to the practice of their rules, have added the profession of vows. Tertiary canons, who have only the third part of the revenue of the canonicate. – Encyc.
5. In monasteries, a book containing the rules of the order.
6. A catalogue of saints acknowledged and canonized in the Romish Church.
7. The secret words of the mass from the preface to the Pater, in the middle of which the priest consecrates the host. The people are to rehearse this part of the service on their knees, and in a voice lower than can be heard. – Romish Church.
8. In ancient music, a rule or method for determining the intervals of notes, invented by Ptolemy. – Encyc.
9. In modern music, a kind of perpetual fugue, in which the different parts, beginning one after another, repeat incessantly the same air. – Busby.
10. In geometry and algebra, a general rule for the solution of cases of a like nature with the present inquiry. Every last step of an equation is a canon.
11. In pharmacy, a rule for compounding medicines.
12. In surgery, an instrument used in sewing up wounds. Canon-law is a collection of ecclesiastical laws, serving as the rule of church government.

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.