cannon
pronunciation
How to pronounce cannon in British English:
UK [ˈkænən]
How to pronounce cannon in American English:
US [ˈkænən]
-
- Noun:
- a large artillery gun that is usually on wheels
- heavy gun fired from a tank
- (Middle Ages) a cylindrical piece of armor plate to protect the arm
- heavy automatic gun fired from an airplane
- lower part of the leg extending from the hock to the fetlock in hoofed mammals
- a shot in billiards in which the cue ball contacts one object ball and then the other
-
- Verb:
- make a cannon
- fire a cannon
Word Origin
- cannon
- cannon: English has two different words cannon, neither of which can for certain be connected with canon. The earlier, ‘large gun’ [16], comes via French canon from Italian cannone ‘large tube’, which was a derivative of canna ‘tube, pipe’, from Latin canna (source of English cane). Cannon as in ‘cannon off something’ [19] is originally a billiards term, and was an alteration (by association with cannon the gun) of an earlier carom (the form still used in American English).This came from Spanish carombola, a kind of fruit fancifully held to resemble a billiard ball, whose ultimate source was probably an unrecorded *karambal in the Marathi language of south central India.=> cane; carom
- cannon (n.)
- c. 1400, "tube for projectiles," from Anglo-French canon, Old French canon (14c.), from Italian cannone "large tube, barrel," augmentative of Latin canna "reed, tube" (see cane (n.)). Meaning "large ordnance piece," the main modern sense, is from 1520s. Spelling not differentiated from canon till c. 1800. Cannon fodder (1891) translates German kanonenfutter (compare Shakespeare's food for powder in "I Hen. IV").
Example
- 1. The range of the water cannon is 55 meters .
- 2. Arab elites came to view him as a loose cannon and a dangerous crank .
- 3. If you 're thinking that you 're about to hear tabasco sauce was originally brewed as a cannon lubricant or some kind of chemical weapon , relax .
- 4. Ron gazed longingly at a full set of chudley cannon robes in the windows of quality quidditch supplies until hermione dragged them off to buy ink and parchment next door .
- 5. The americans humoured their northern friend and neighbour by firing their cannon .