A great gun; a piece of ordnance or artillery; a firearm for discharging heavy shot with great force. Note: 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.
2.
(Mech.) A hollow cylindrical piece carried by a revolving shaft, on which it may, however, revolve independently.
Cannon ball, strictly, a round solid missile of stone or iron made to be fired from a cannon, but now often applied to a missile of any shape, whether solid or hollow, made for cannon. Elongated and cylindrical missiles are sometimes called bolts; hollow ones charged with explosives are properly called shells.
Cannon bullet, a cannon ball. (Obs.)
Cannon cracker, a fire cracker of large size.
Cannon lock, a device for firing a cannon by a percussion primer.
To collide or strike violently, esp. so as to glance off or rebound; to strike and rebound. "He heard the right-hand goal post crack as a pony cannoned into it crack, splinter, and fall like a mast."
... although the coffee houses were not for both sexes, as in other European countries. The London City Quaeries for 1660 makes mention of "a she-coffee merchant." Mary Stringar ran a coffee house in Little Trinity Lane in 1669; Anne Blunt was mistress of one of the Turk's-Head houses in Cannon Street in 1672. Mary Long was the widow of William Long, and her initials, together with those of her husband, appear on a token issued from the Rose tavern in Bridge Street, Covent Garden. Mary Long's token from the "Rose coffee house by the playhouse" in Covent Garden ... — All About Coffee • William H. Ukers Read full book for free!
... along the grass grown tract, a hundred and fifty yards wide, between the foot of the dunes and the cultivated country inland. They were received, however, by so hot a fire by the five hundred musketeers posted by Vere in the sand hills on their flank, and by the two cannon on West Hill, that they fell back upon their infantry just as the Dutch horse, under Count Louis, ... — By England's Aid or The Freeing of the Netherlands (1585-1604) • G.A. Henty Read full book for free!
... to seek "the bubble reputation at the cannon's mouth," that great composed, uncomplaining body of men; content simply to wear the uniform and to know that their toil was contributing to a result just as important as the work of anyone in the army. Did they wish to ... — History of the American Negro in the Great World War • W. Allison Sweeney Read full book for free!
... Yuh said so, once when I said I was just a plain, ordinary man. I've sworn off being ordinary since yuh gave me that tip," he said cheerfully. "Let's have a look at that cannon you're hiding under your apron. Where did yuh resurrect it? Out of some ... — The Lonesome Trail and Other Stories • B. M. Bower Read full book for free!
... said TIM O'FLANAGAN (from Edinburgh), who, no doubt, would have developed the idea, had not his head at that moment been carried off by a cannon-ball. Very comic! ... — Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 98, March 22, 1890 • Various Read full book for free!
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