Also 5 canne, can. [ME. canne, cane, a. OF. cane, later canne (= Pr. cana, Sp. caña, It. canna):—L. canna, a. Gr. κάννα, κάννη, reed, perh. from Semitic: cf. Heb. qāneh, Arab. qanāh reed, cane. In Latin the sense was extended from ‘(hollow) reed or cane’ to ‘tube or pipe,’ a sense retained in Romanic, and prominent in the derivatives canneau, cannella, etc.]
1. The hollow jointed ligneous stem of various giant reeds or grasses, as Bamboo and Sugar cane, and the solid stem of some of the more slender palms, esp. the genus Calamus (the Rattan); also the stem of the Raspberry and its congeners.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XII. ix. (1495), 419. A noyse as it were wyth a canne other a grete reyd.
c. 1425. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 645. Hec canna, cane. Ibid. (c. 1475), 763. Hic calamus, a cane.
1481. Caxton, Myrr., II. x. 89. Ther growe in many places [of ynde] canes … ful of sugre.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, vi. 101. The Sugar is nothing else but the iuyce of certaine Canes or Reedes.
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., II. xlvi. 152. The best Canes in the World grow hereabout.
1783. Cowper, Task, I. 39. Now came the cane from India, smooth and bright With Nature’s varnish.
1861. Delamer, Kitch. Gard., 163. As soon as the last dish of fruit [raspberries] has been gathered, cut down … every cane on which it has grown.
1880. Howells, Undisc. Country, xiii. 189. The canes of the blackberries and raspberries in the garden were tufted with dark green.
b. contextually = Sugar-cane.
1781. Cowper, Charity, 190. Has God then given its sweetness to the cane … in vain?
1837. Ht. Martineau, Soc. Amer., II. 52. Some of the southern newspapers have recommended the substitution of beet for canes.
c. As name of a substance, without plural: usually the stem of the rattan or other palm.
Mod. A piece of cane, Ribs of whalebone or split cane.
2. Hence, with various defining words, Bamboo cane, Dragon cane, Rattan cane, Reed cane, Sugar cane; see BAMBOO, etc. Malacca cane, a species (Calamus Scipionum) much thicker than the rattan, used for walking-sticks; Tobago cane, a slender West Indian palm, used for the same purpose. Also in the names of plants that are not canes: as Dumb Cane, an araceous plant, Dieffenbachia seguina; Indian cane, Canna indica (N. O. Marantaceæ); Sweet Cane, the Sweet Flag, Acorus Calamus.
1611. Bible, Isa. xliii. 24. Thou hast bought mee no sweete cane with money.
1611. Cotgr., Acore, Calamas aromaticus, the sweet Cane.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXIII. 227/2. The canes which grow immediately from the planted slips are called plant-canes … the canes which sprout up from the old roots, or stoles, being called rattoons.
1866. Treas. Bot., 116/1. Its [Bactris minor] stems are said to be sometimes imported into this country under the name of Tobago canes. Ibid., 406. Dieffenbachia, It has acquired the name of Dumb Cane in the West Indies, in consequence of its fleshy cane-like stems rendering speechless any person who may happen to bite them, the juice of the plant being so excessively acrid as to … prevent articulation for several days.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 443/2. Malacca canes have frequently to be colored in parts.
† 3. A dart or lance made of a reed or cane; also fig. Obs. [cf. Lat. uses of calamus, harundo.]
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 77. You shall see how quickly he will take up your glove, and … crush your Sophisticall canes in peeces.
1677. Sedley, Ant. & Cl., Wks. 1722, I. 162. Slain … by some flying Parthian’s darted Cane.
1672. Dryden, Conq. Granada, I. i. (J.). The flying skirmish of the darted Cane.
† b. Play of (the) cane(s: a translation of Sp. juego de cañas ‘skirmish with throwing canes on horsebacke one at another’ (Minsheu, 1623). Obs.
1556. Chron. Gr. Friars (1852), 92. The play of the Spanyardes that was callyd the cane.
1574. Hellowes, Gueuara’s Fam. Ep. (1577), 209. All the knights of the bande should … practise the play at the canes.
1627. R. Ashley, Almansor, 5 The Prince went downe, with all the Alcaydes … to play at the Canes.
4. A suitable length of a cane stem, especially of one of the slender palms, prepared and used for a walking-stick, or as a rod for beating. Hence, by extension, a slender walking-stick of any sort.
1590. Webbe, Trav. (1868), 17. In Turkie they are beaten for debt vpon the soles of their feet with a Cane.
1662. Pepys, Diary, 18 April. Sending the boy down into the cellar … I followed him with a cane, and did there beat him.
1686. Lond. Gaz., No. 2186/4. A Silver Sword, and a Cane of gilded Silver.
1722. De Foe, Relig. Courtsh., I. iii. (1840), 104. There are more ways of correction than the rod and the cane.
1799. Southey, Shufflebottom’s Amat. Poems, iv. That portly Gentleman With gold-laced hat and golden-headed cane.
1853. Arabian Nts. (Rtldg.), 100. One of the slaves … gave me so many blows with a small pliant cane.
† 5. A pipe or tube; in later use, esp. a slender glass tube, the tubular neck of a retort, or the like. [So L. and It. canna, F. canne.] Obs.
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. vi. They take a quil … or a large can And in the ende this stone they set than.
1547. Boorde, Brev. Health, lii. 23 b. The canes of the lunges [cf. L. canna gutturis].
1605. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. vi. I. 209. Least our eyes should bee As theirs that Heau’n through hollow Canes do see.
1684. R. Waller, Nat. Exper., 28. Take a Glass Cane AB … seal it at A, and … fill it with Mercury.
1693. E. Halley, in Phil. Trans., XVII. 652. I took a smaller Bolt-head with a proportional Cane or Neck. Ibid. (1720), XXXI. 118. Let there be provided two small Glass Canes.
† b. Cane of fire: old term for a gun or fire-arm. [16th c. F. and It.; cf. F. canne à vent air-gun.]
1550. Edw. VI., Jrnl., in Lit. Rem. (1858), 279. With … canes of fire and bombardes assaulted the castel.
1591. Harington, Orl. Fur., IX. lxvii. (R.).
| Bringing with him his iron cane and fire, | |
| Wherewith he doth beate downe, batter & burne, | |
| All those whom he to mischeefe doth desire. |
[1670. Lassels, Voy. Italy, I. E v. They bring home nothing but firecanes, parots, and Monkies.]
6. Applied to a slender cylindrical stick or rod of various substances: a. of sealing-wax or sulphur b. of glass (solid); † c. of tobacco.
a. 1618. Sylvester, Tobacco Battered, Wks. (1621), 1145. Impose so deep a Taxe On All these Ball, Leafe, Cane, and Pudding Packs.
a. 1612. Harington, Epigr., IV. 34 (N.). Then of tobacco he a pype doth lack, Of Trinidade in cane, in leaf, or ball.
1645. Evelyn, Diary (Chandos), 129. Sulphure made … casting it into canes.
1746. Phil. Trans., XLIV. 27. Concerning the effects of a cane of black sealing wax, and a cane of brimstone, in electrical experiments.
1849. Pellatt, Curios. Glass Making, 108. ‘Cane’ invariably means a solid stick of glass; and ‘tube’ hollow.
1884. Public Opinion, 11 July, 47/1. Glass blowers, with globes, cylinders, and canes.
7. Put for F. canne, It. canna, as a measure of length. Cf. CANNA2; also L. calamus, and REED.
At Naples = 7 ft. 31/2 in., at Toulouse 5 ft. 82/3 in.; in Provence 6 ft. 51/2 in.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xxxvii. A combe which was nine hundred foot long of the Jewish Canne-measure.
1750. Beawes, Lex Mercat. (1752), 891.
1769. Hamilton, in Phil. Trans., LX. 9. A Neapolitan cane is two yards and half a quarter, English measure.
8. = CANNEL.
1621. H. Ainsworth, Annot. Pentat., Lev. i. 6 (1639), 6. The Cane (or chanell bone) of the shoulder.
9. Comb.: a. attributive, as cane arrow, -bill, -bottom (hence cane-bottoming), -chair, -cut, -field, -grass, -piece, -seat, -slip, -sugar, -wine; b. objective, as cane-scraper, -seller, -splitter, -stripper; c. with pa. pple., as cane-bottomed, -seated, adjs.; also cane-like adj., cane-wise adv.
1874. Boutell, Arms & Arm., iii. 52. Long *cane arrows … tipped … with sharp pieces of stone.
1831. J. Holland, Manuf. Metals, I. 142. The *cane bill.
1877. Amelia B. Edwards, Up Nile, ii. 40. A row of *cane-bottomed chairs.
1696. Lond. Gaz., No. 3213/4. *Cane-Chairs … Tables, Stands. Ibid. (1710), No. 4646/4. Richard Lewis, born in Shropshire, a Cane-chair-maker.
1850. Marg. Fuller, Wom. in 19th C. (1862), 263. Light cane-chairs.
1887. Pall Mall Gaz., 5 Aug., 3/1. Three *cane-cuts over the palm of the hand.
1841. Orderson, Creoleana, xvii. 202. A *cane field bordering the road.
1882. P. Robinson, Under Sun, III. v. 198. The tiger … crouches among the *cane-grass.
1866. Treas. Bot., I. 406/1. The stem has a *cane-like appearance.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, III. 937. The *cane-pieces were strewed … in the path of the wheel, and the juice expressed flowed away through a channel or gutter.
1881. Mechanic, § 40. 19. Beechen frames for *cane-seated chairs.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, III. 936. The proper season for planting the *cane-slips.
1887. Daily News, 20 May, 6/8. Sugar…. *Cane sorts continue inactive.
1855. J. F. Johnston, Chem. Com. Life, I. 255. The *cane sugars are popularly distinguished from the grape sugars by greater sweetness. Ibid., 329. To this *cane-wine the negroes give the name of Guarapo.
c. 1654. Flecknoe, Ten Years Trav., 71. The body [of the Pinto tree] growing *Cane-wise.
10. Special combs.: cane-apple, the Strawberry-tree, Arbutus Unedo (Chambers, Cycl. Supp., 1753); cane-brake, (a.) a brake or thicket of canes; (b.) a genus of grasses, Arundinaria, allied to the bamboo; cane-brimstone, sulphur in rolls or sticks; cane-fly, a West Indian insect; cane-gun, a gun constructed in the form of a cane or walking-stick; cane-harvester, a machine for cutting standing (sugar) canes; cane-hole (in Sugar-planting), the hole or trench in which the slips of sugar-cane are planted; cane-juice, the juice of the sugar-cane; cane-killer, a plant (Alectra brasiliensis); cane-liquor = cane-juice; cane-mill, a mill for crushing (sugar) canes; cane-press, a machine for pressing sugar-canes; cane-stripper, a knife for stripping and topping the stalks of the sugar-cane; † cane-tobacco, tobacco in the form of cane (see sense 6); cane-trash, the refuse of sugar-canes after the expression of the juice.
1839–40. W. Irving, Wolfert’s R. (1855), 266. They [hunting camps] were generally pitched near a run of water, and close by a *canebrake, to screen us from the wind.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U.S., I. ii. 49. The impassable canebrakes, and the dense woods.
1750. G. Hughes, Barbados. The *Cane-fly … is a small whitish fly…. It is chiefly to be seen among thick-planted ripe canes.
1750. Beawes, Lex Mercat. (1752), 751. I might add Sugar … if these People (Demi-Barbarians) had the Art to prepare and boil the *Canes Juice.
1764. Grainger, Sugar-Cane, I. note (R.). A nation who made use of the cane-juice as a drink.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, III. 941. Recent *cane liquor contains no appreciable portion of acid to be saturated.
1600. Rowlands, Lett. Humours Blood, vi. 77. Out upon *Cane and leafe Tobacco smell.
1605. Chapman, All Fools, in Dodsley (1780), IV. 187. My boy once lighted A pipe of cane tobacco with a piece Of a vile ballad.
1608. Merry Dev. Edmont., in Hazl., Dodsley, X. 215. Stuff’d With smoke, more chargeable than cane-tobacco.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXIII. 228/2. The canes … are reduced to the form of dry splinters, which are called *cane-trash, and are used as fuel in heating the vessels for evaporating the juice.
