cannon Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun a large artillery gun that is usually on wheels
noun heavy gun fired from a tank
noun (Middle Ages) a cylindrical piece of armor plate to protect the arm
noun heavy automatic gun fired from an airplane
noun lower part of the leg extending from the hock to the fetlock in hoofed mammals
shank.
noun a shot in billiards in which the cue ball contacts one object ball and then the other
carom.
verb make a cannon
verb fire a cannon

F. cannon, fr. L. canna reed, pipe, tube. See Cane.

plural Cannons collectively Cannon

A great gun; a piece of ordnance or artillery; a firearm for discharging heavy shot with great force. ✍ Cannons are made of various materials, as iron, brass, bronze, and steel, and of various sizes and shapes with respect to the special service for which they are intended, as intended, as siege, seacoast, naval, field, or mountain, guns. They always aproach more or less nearly to a cylindrical from, being usually thicker toward the breech than at the muzzle. Formerly they were cast hollow, afterwards they were cast, solid, and bored out. The cannon now most in use for the armament of war vessels and for seacoast defense consists of a forged steel tube reinforced with massive steel rings shrunk upon it. Howitzers and mortars are sometimes called cannon. See Gun.
(Mech.) A hollow cylindrical piece carried by a revolving shaft, on which it may, however, revolve independently.
(Printing.) A kind of type. See Canon.