n. & v.
n. 1 hist. (pl. same) a large heavy gun installed on a carriage or mounting. 2 an automatic aircraft gun firing shells. 3 Billiards the hitting of two balls successively by the cue-ball. 4 Mech. a hollow cylinder moving independently on a shaft. 5 (in full cannon-bit) a smooth round bit for a horse.
v.intr. 1 (usu. foll. by against, into) collide heavily or obliquely. 2 Billiards make a cannon shot. cannon-ball hist. a large usu. metal ball fired by a cannon. cannon-bone the tube-shaped bone between the hock and fetlock of a horse. cannon-fodder soldiers regarded merely as material to be expended in war.
[ F canon f. It. cannone large tube f. canna CANE: in Billiards sense f. older CAROM ]