\Can"non\, n.; pl. {Cannons}, collectively {Cannon}. [F.
cannon, fr. L. canna reed, pipe, tube. See {Cane}.]
1. 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.
3. (Printing.) A kind of type. See {Canon}.
{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.
{Cannon metal}. See {Gun Metal}.
{Cannon pinion}, the pinion on the minute hand arbor of a
   watch or clock, which drives the hand but permits it to be
   moved in setting.
{Cannon proof}, impenetrable by cannon balls.
{Cannon shot}.
   (a) A cannon ball.
   (b) The range of a cannon.

\Can"non\, n. & v. (Billiards)
See {Carom}. [Eng.]

\Can"non\, v. i.
1. To discharge cannon.
2. 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.                                 --Kipling.