Cannon \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.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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Gun \Gun\, n. [OE. gonne, gunne; of uncertain origin; cf. Ir.,
Gael.) A LL. gunna, W. gum; possibly (like cannon) fr. L.
canna reed, tube; or abbreviated fr. OF. mangonnel, E.
mangonel, a machine for hurling stones.]
1. A weapon which throws or propels a missile to a distance;
any firearm or instrument for throwing projectiles by the
explosion of gunpowder, consisting of a tube or barrel
closed at one end, in which the projectile is placed, with
an explosive charge behind, which is ignited by various
means. Muskets, rifles, carbines, and fowling pieces are
smaller guns, for hand use, and are called small arms.
Larger guns are called cannon, ordnance,
fieldpieces, carronades, howitzers, etc. See these
terms in the Vocabulary.
As swift as a pellet out of a gunne When fire is in
the powder runne. --Chaucer.
The word gun was in use in England for an engine to
cast a thing from a man long before there was any
gunpowder found out. --Selden.
2. (Mil.) A piece of heavy ordnance; in a restricted sense, a
cannon.
3. pl. (Naut.) Violent blasts of wind.
Note: Guns are classified, according to their construction or
manner of loading as rifled or smoothbore,
breech-loading or muzzle-loading, cast or
built-up guns; or according to their use, as field,
mountain, prairie, seacoast, and siege guns.
Armstrong gun, a wrought iron breech-loading cannon named
after its English inventor, Sir William Armstrong.
Great gun, a piece of heavy ordnance; hence (Fig.), a
person superior in any way.
Gun barrel, the barrel or tube of a gun.
Gun carriage, the carriage on which a gun is mounted or
moved.
Gun cotton (Chem.), a general name for a series of
explosive nitric ethers of cellulose, obtained by steeping
cotton in nitric and sulphuric acids. Although there are
formed substances containing nitric acid radicals, yet the
results exactly resemble ordinary cotton in appearance. It
burns without ash, with explosion if confined, but quietly
and harmlessly if free and open, and in small quantity.
Specifically, the lower nitrates of cellulose which are
insoluble in ether and alcohol in distinction from the
highest (pyroxylin) which is soluble. See Pyroxylin, and
cf. Xyloidin. The gun cottons are used for blasting and
somewhat in gunnery: for making celluloid when compounded
with camphor; and the soluble variety (pyroxylin) for
making collodion. See Celluloid, and Collodion. Gun
cotton is frequenty but improperly called nitrocellulose.
It is not a nitro compound, but an ethereal salt of nitric
acid.
Gun deck. See under Deck.
Gun fire, the time at which the morning or the evening gun
is fired.
Gun metal, a bronze, ordinarily composed of nine parts of
copper and one of tin, used for cannon, etc. The name is
also given to certain strong mixtures of cast iron.
Gun port (Naut.), an opening in a ship through which a
cannon's muzzle is run out for firing.
Gun tackle (Naut.), the blocks and pulleys affixed to the
side of a ship, by which a gun carriage is run to and from
the gun port.
Gun tackle purchase (Naut.), a tackle composed of two
single blocks and a fall. --Totten.
Krupp gun, a wrought steel breech-loading cannon, named
after its German inventor, Herr Krupp.
Machine gun, a breech-loading gun or a group of such guns,
mounted on a carriage or other holder, and having a
reservoir containing cartridges which are loaded into the
gun or guns and fired in rapid succession, sometimes in
volleys, by machinery operated by turning a crank. Several
hundred shots can be fired in a minute with accurate aim.
The Gatling gun, Gardner gun, Hotchkiss gun, and
Nordenfelt gun, named for their inventors, and the
French mitrailleuse, are machine guns.
To blow great guns (Naut.), to blow a gale. See Gun, n.,
3.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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