[a. OF. canton corner, portion of a country, part of a shield, etc. = It. cantone corner, angle, augmentative of canto corner; see CANT sb.1]
† 1. A corner, an angle; a retreating corner, angle or nook. Obs.
1534. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel., xv. When I kept the Cantons, jetted in the streetes.
1598. Yong, Diana, 87. The house was quadrant, and at euery Canton was reared vp a high and artificiall tower.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 73. In the inmost nouke of the creeke, the very canton and angle of Bœotia is washed by the sea.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xlviii. He … with his Artillery began to thunder so terribly upon that canton of the wall.
2. Her. An ordinary of a shield or escutcheon, being a square division less than a quarter, occupying the upper (usually dexter) corner of the shield.
1572. Bossewell, Armorie, II. 39. Whan ye shall see anye token abated, by the dignitie of the Canton.
1662. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), I. 389. The King gave us [the Royal Society] the arms of England to be borne in a canton in our arms.
1808. Regul. relat. to Service at Sea, IV. i. 79. Merchant Ships are to carry a Red Ensign with the Union Jack in a canton.
1864. Boutell, Heraldry Hist. & Pop. (ed. 3), 208. Heirs of an Heiress, who are not also heirs of their father, should bear on a Canton their father’s arms.
1872. Ruskin, Eagle’s N., § 235.
b. ‘Also used for the angular spaces between the branches of a cross or saltier’ (Chambers, Cycl.).
1830. E. Campbell, Dict. Mil. Sc., s.v. Colours, The Second Colour … is the St. George’s Cross throughout, the Union in the upper Canton, the other three Cantons black.
† 3. A quarter; a division of anything; a piece, or part. Cf. CANTLE 2–4. Obs.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 434. A square piece or canton of the fish Tuny salted and condited. Ibid. (1603), Plutarch’s Mor., 462. If you regard number, all Greece … is not able to furnish us, for it would but answere one portion or canton of their [the Persians’] multitude.
1631. Brathwait, Whimzies, Post-master, 117. Hee quarters out his life into foure Cantons, Eating, drinking, sleeping and riding.
1686. Burnet, Trav., 255 (L.). Another piece of Holbein’s … in which, in six several cantons, the several parts of our Saviour’s Passion are represented.
1686. trans. Chardin’s Trav. Persia, 405. How many degrees are requir’d to be a Canton of thy Knowledge?
4. A subdivision of a country; a small district.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 56. The description by him made of all Italy, which be diuided into 11 Regions or Cantons.
1602. Warner, Albion’s Eng., Epit. (1612), 360. The Saxon Heptarchia or their seuen Kingdomes, Cantons or Colonies here erected.
1702. Eng. Theophrast., 319. Men who have been the refuse of a little canton, and are now the honour of the world.
1760. T. Hutchinson, Hist. Coll. Mass. Bay, ii. (1765), 277. The Indians … divided into smaller cantons.
1796. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), IV. 153. In the retired canton where I live, we know little of what is passing.
1839. Thirlwall, Greece, I. 343. Cypselus, king of Arcadia, or of some Arcadian canton.
b. A parcel of ground; a portion of space.
1643. Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., I. § 15. There are no Grotesques in nature: not any thing framed to fill up empty cantons and unnecessary spaces.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., IV. iii. § 24. This little Canton, I mean this System of our Sun.
1693. Evelyn, De la Quint. Compl. Gard., I. 180. All the Fruits of the same season, should be placed in the same Canton, or Parcel of Ground.
5. spec. a. One of the several sovereign states that form the Swiss confederation.
1611. Cotgr., Canton … (proper to Helvetia, or Switzer-land; which, at this day, consists of thirteene such Cantons).
1625. Bacon, Nobility, Ess. (Arb.), 191. The Switzers last well, notwithstanding their Diversitie of Religion, and of Cantons.
1720. Lond. Gaz., No. 5860/1. Berne, June 12 … One of the Avoyers or Chief Magistrates of the Canton.
1868. G. Duff, Pol. Surv., 21. Pure democracy is nothing new in Switzerland. It has long existed in several of the small cantons.
b. In France, a division of an arrondissement containing several communes, answering somewhat to the hundred in England.
1611. Cotgr., Canton … Canton, or Hundred; a Precinct.
1838. Penny Cycl., X. 416/1. The smallest judicial divisions are cantons, each of which … in the rural districts comprehends several communes … The whole number of cantons in the kingdom is 2834.
1848. W. H. Kelly, trans. L. Blanc’s Hist. Ten Y., I. 50. An electoral college in each canton.
