different between cannon vs shank

English

Etymology

Attested from around 1400 as Middle English canon, from Old French canon, from Italian cannone, from Latin canna, from Ancient Greek ????? (kánna, “reed”), from Akkadian ???? (qanû, “reed”), from Sumerian ???????? (gi.na). Doublet of canyon.

This spelling was not fixed until about 1800.

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?n'?n, IPA^(key): /?kæn.?n/
• Rhymes: -æn?n
• Homophone: canon

Noun

cannon (countable and uncountable, plural (mainly UK) cannons or cannon)

1. A complete assembly, consisting of an artillery tube and a breech mechanism, firing mechanism or base cap, which is a component of a gun, howitzer or mortar. It may include muzzle appendages.
2. Any similar device for shooting material out of a tube.
   1. (military, aviation) An autocannon.
3. A bone of a horse's leg, between the fetlock joint and the knee or hock.
4. A cannon bit.
5. (historical) A large muzzle-loading artillery piece.
6. (sports, billiards, snooker, pool) A carom.

   In English billiards, a cannon is when one's cue ball strikes the other player's cue ball and the red ball on the same shot; and it is worth two points.

7. (baseball, figuratively, informal) The arm of a player that can throw well.

   He's got a cannon out in right.

8. (engineering) A hollow cylindrical piece carried by a revolving shaft, on which it may, however, revolve independently.
9. (printing, uncountable) Alternative form of canon (“a large size of type”)
10. (xiangqi) A piece which moves horizontally and vertically like a rook but captures another piece by jumping over a different piece in the line of attack.

Related terms

• autocannon
• cannonade
• cannonball
• cannoneer
• glass cannon
• nursery cannon

Translations

Verb

cannon (third-person singular simple present cannons, present participle cannoning, simple past and past participle cannoned)

1. To bombard with cannons.
2. (sports, billiards, snooker, pool) To play the carom billiard shot. To strike two balls with the cue ball

   The white cannoned off the red onto the pink.

3. To fire something, especially spherical, rapidly.
4. To collide or strike violently, especially so as to glance off or rebound.
   • 1898, Rudyard Kipling, "The Maltese Cat" in The Day's Work, [2]

     […] he heard the right-hand goal post crack as a pony cannoned into it—crack, splinter, and fall like a mast.

   • 1952, C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Collins, 1998, Chapter 11,

     She ran down the stairs which she had come up so nervously that morning and cannoned into Edmund at the bottom.

Translations

References

Further reading

• cannon on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Etymology

From Middle English schanke, from Old English s?anca (“leg”), from Proto-West Germanic *skank?, from Proto-Germanic *skankô (compare West Frisian skonk, Low German Schanke, German Schenkel (“shank, leg”), Norwegian skank), from *skankaz (compare Old Norse skakkr (“wry, crooked”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keng- (compare Middle Irish scingim (“I spring”), Ancient Greek ????? (skáz?, “to limp”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æ?k/
• Rhymes: -æ?k

Noun

shank (plural shanks)

1. The part of the leg between the knee and the ankle.
2. Meat from that part of an animal.
3. (ornithology, colloquial) A redshank or greenshank, various species of Old World wading birds in the genus Tringa having distinctly colored legs.
4. A straight, narrow part of an object, such as a key or an anchor; shaft; stem.
5. The handle of a pair of shears, connecting the ride to the neck.
6. The center part of a fishhook between the eye and the hook, the 'hook' being the curved part that bends toward the point.
7. A protruding part of an object, by which it is or can be attached.
8. The metal part on a curb bit that falls below the mouthpiece, which length controls the severity of the leverage action of the bit, and to which the reins of the bridle are attached.
9. (sports) A poorly played golf shot in which the ball is struck by the part of the club head that connects to the shaft.
10. (slang) An improvised stabbing weapon; a shiv.
11. A loop forming an eye to a button.
12. (architecture) The space between two channels of the Doric triglyph.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Gwilt to this entry?)

13. (metalworking) A large ladle for molten metal, fitted with long bars for handling it.
14. (printing, dated) The body of a type; between the shoulder and the foot.
15. (shoemaking) The part of the sole beneath the instep connecting the broader front part with the heel.
16. Flat-nosed pliers, used by opticians for nipping off the edges of pieces of glass to make them round.
17. The end or remainder, particularly of a period of time.
18. The main part or beginning of a period of time.

Synonyms

(improvised stabbing weapon): shiv (slang)

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

shank (third-person singular simple present shanks, present participle shanking, simple past and past participle shanked)

1. (archaic, Ulster) To travel on foot.
2. (slang) To stab, especially with an improvised blade.
3. (slang) To remove another's trousers, especially in jest; to depants.
4. (transitive, golf) To misstrike the ball with the part of the club head that connects to the shaft.
5. (transitive, chiefly tennis, soccer, gridiron football) To hit or kick the ball in an unintended direction.
6. (intransitive) To fall off, as a leaf, flower, or capsule, on account of disease affecting the supporting footstalk; usually followed by off.
   • 1861, Charles Darwin, Cause of the variation of flowers

     the gerrnens of these swelled, and on four out of the six I have now got fine pods, above 1% inch in length, with the seeds externally visible; whereas the flower stalks of the many other flowers all shanked off.

7. (transitive, sewing) To provide (a button) with a shank (loop forming an eye).
   • 2000, The Indian Textile Journal (volume 110, issues 7-12)

     The system is suitable for shanking all kind of sewn buttons (jackets, coats, blouses, shirts, trousers).

8. (shoemaking) To apply the shank to a shoe, during the process of manufacturing it.
   • 1986 March 6, "Factory Work" [Poetry, 147], quoted in 2009, Deborah Boe, The Girl of the Early Race: Poems, Gegensatz Press (?ISBN):

     I take those metal shanks, slide the backs of them in glue and make them lie down on the shoe-bottoms, […] Last week they ran a contest to see which shankers shanked fastest. I'm not embarrassed to say I beat them all.

Synonyms

(to stab with an improvised weapon): shiv (slang)

(to remove another's pants): depants (slang)

Adjective

shank (comparative shanker, superlative shankest)

1. (slang) Bad.

See also

• shank it
• (poorly played golf shot): thin, fat, toe

Anagrams

• Hanks, Naskh, ankhs, hanks, khans