Adjacent Words

Cane definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CANE, n.
1. In botany, this term is applied to several species of plants belonging to several species of plants belonging to different genera, such as Arundo, Calamus, Saccharum, etc. Among these is the bamboo of the East Indies, with a strong stem, which serves for pipes, poles, and walking sticks. The sugar cane, a native of Asia, Africa and America, furnishes the juice from which are made, sugar, melasses and spirit. [See Sugar Cane.]
2. A walking stick.
3. A long measure, in several countries of Europe; at Naples, the length is 7 feet 3 inches; in Thoulouse in France, 5 feet 8 inches; in Provence, etc., 6 feet 5 inches.
CANE, v.t. To beat with a cane or walking stick.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a stick that people can lean on to help them walk
2: a strong slender often flexible stem as of bamboos, reeds, rattans, or sugar cane
3: a stiff switch used to hit students as punishment v
1: beat with a cane [syn: cane, flog, lambaste, lambast]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Old Occitan cana, from Latin canna, from Greek kanna, of Semitic origin; akin to Akkadian qan? reed, Hebrew q?neh Date: 14th century 1. a. (1) a hollow or pithy and usually slender and flexible jointed stem (as of a reed) (2) any of various slender woody stems; especially an elongated flowering or fruiting stem (as of a rose) usually arising directly from the ground b. any of various tall woody grasses or reeds: as (1) any of a genus (Arundinaria) of coarse grasses (2) sugarcane (3) sorghum 2. cane dressed for use: as a. a cane walking stick; broadly walking stick b. a cane or rod for flogging c. rattan; especially split rattan for wickerwork or basketwork 3. a tiny glass rod used in decorative glasswork (as in millefiori and paperweights) II. transitive verb (caned; caning) Date: 1662 1. to beat with a cane <he sat in a professor's chair and caned sophomores for blowing spitballs — H. L. Mencken> 2. to weave or furnish with cane <cane the seat of a chair>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a the hollow jointed stem of giant reeds or grasses (bamboo cane). b the solid stem of slender palms (malacca cane). 2 = sugar cane. 3 a raspberry-cane. 4 material of cane used for wickerwork etc. 5 a a cane used as a walking-stick or a support for a plant or an instrument of punishment. b any slender walking-stick. --v.tr. 1 beat with a cane. 2 weave cane into (a chair etc.). Phrases and idioms: cane-brake US a tract of land overgrown with canes. cane chair a chair with a seat made of woven cane strips. cane-sugar sugar obtained from sugar-cane. cane-trash see TRASH. Derivatives: caner n. (in sense 2 of v.). caning n. Etymology: ME f. OF f. L canna f. Gk kanna

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Cane Cane, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Caned; p. pr. & vb. n. Caning.] 1. To beat with a cane. --Macaulay. 2. To make or furnish with cane or rattan; as, to cane chairs.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Cane Cane, n. [OE. cane, canne, OF. cane, F. canne, L. canna, fr. Gr. ?, ?; prob. of Semitic origin; cf. Heb. q[=a]neh reed. Cf. Canister, canon, 1st Cannon.] 1. (Bot.) (a) A name given to several peculiar palms, species of Calamus and D[ae]manorops, having very long, smooth flexible stems, commonly called rattans. (b) Any plant with long, hard, elastic stems, as reeds and bamboos of many kinds; also, the sugar cane. (c) Stems of other plants are sometimes called canes; as, the canes of a raspberry. Like light canes, that first rise big and brave. --B. Jonson. Note: In the Southern United States great cane is the Arundinaria macrosperma, and small cane is. A. tecta. 2. A walking stick; a staff; -- so called because originally made of one the species of cane. Stir the fire with your master's cane. --Swift. 3. A lance or dart made of cane. [R.] Judgelike thou sitt'st, to praise or to arraign The flying skirmish of the darted cane. --Dryden. 4. A local European measure of length. See Canna. Cane borer (Zo["o].), A beetle (Oberea bimaculata) which, in the larval state, bores into pith and destroy the canes or stalks of the raspberry, blackberry, etc. Cane mill, a mill for grinding sugar canes, for the manufacture of sugar. Cane trash, the crushed stalks and other refuse of sugar cane, used for fuel, etc.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(canes) 1. Cane is used to refer to the long, hollow, hard stems of plants such as bamboo. Strips of cane are often used to make furniture, and some types of cane can be crushed and processed to make sugar. ...cane furniture. ...cane sugar... Bamboo produces an annual crop of cane... Dig out and burn infected canes. N-VAR: oft N n 2. A cane is a long thin stick with a curved or round top which you can use to support yourself when you are walking, or which in the past was fashionable to carry with you. N-COUNT 3. A cane is a long, thin, flexible stick which in the past was used to hit people, especially children at school, as a punishment. Until the 1980s some criminals were still flogged with a rattan cane as a punishment. N-COUNT • The cane is used to refer to the punishment of being hit with a cane. N-SING: the N 4. see also sugar cane

Easton's Bible Dictionary

a tall sedgy plant with a hollow stem, growing in moist places. In Isa. 43:24; Jer. 6:20, the Hebrew word _kaneh_ is thus rendered, giving its name to the plant. It is rendered "reed" in 1 Kings 14:15; Job 40:21; Isa. 19:6; 35:7. In Ps. 68:30 the expression "company of spearmen" is in the margin and the Revised Version "beasts of the reeds," referring probably to the crocodile or the hippopotamus as a symbol of Egypt. In 2 Kings 18:21; Isa. 36:6; Ezek. 29:6, 7, the reference is to the weak, fragile nature of the reed. (See CALAMUS.)

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

kan.

See REED.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

To lay Cane upon Abel; to beat any one with a cane or stick.

Moby Thesaurus

Boston type, Braille, Malacca cane, New York point, Optacon, Pathsounder, Seeing Eye dog, Visotoner, advocate, aftergrass, alpenstock, anthrophore, arm, athletic supporter, axis, back, backbone, backing, bamboo, bandeau, baste, bastinado, baton, bearer, beat, belabor, belt, birch, bole, bra, brace, bracer, bracket, brassiere, buffet, buttress, carpophore, carrier, caudex, caulicle, caulis, cereal, cereal plant, cervix, club, corn, corset, cowhide, crook, crosier, cross, cross-staff, crutch, crutch-stick, cudgel, culm, cut, drub, embosser, farinaceous plant, ferule, flagellate, flail, flog, fog, footstalk, forage grass, foundation garment, fulcrum, funicule, funiculus, fustigate, girdle, give a whipping, give the stick, grain, graminaceous plant, grass, guide dog, guy, guywire, handstaff, haulm, high-speed embosser, horsewhip, jock, jockstrap, knout, lace, lash, lawn grass, lay on, leafstalk, line letter, lituus, mainstay, maintainer, mast, neck, noctograph, optophone, ornamental grass, paddle, pandybat, pastoral staff, paterissa, pedicel, peduncle, personal sonar, petiole, petiolule, petiolus, pistol-whip, pommel, prop, pummel, quarterstaff, rattan, rawhide, reed, reinforce, reinforcement, reinforcer, rest, resting place, rigging, rod, ruler, scourge, seedstalk, sensory aid, shillelagh, shoulder, shroud, sight-saver type, smite, spank, spear, spine, spire, sprit, staff, stalk, standing rigging, stave, stay, stem, stick, stiffener, stipe, stock, strap, straw, strengthener, string alphabet, stripe, support, supporter, sustainer, swagger stick, swanking stick, swinge, switch, talking book, thrash, thump, tigella, trounce, truncheon, trunk, ultrasonic spectacles, upholder, visagraph, walking stick, wallop, whale, whip, whop, writing frame, writing stamps