or canniken, subs. (old).—The plague. [Grose includes it in his dictionary under the sense of ‘a small can,’ but this was not a slang usage.]
1688. RANDLE HOLME, Academy of Armoury, III., iii., § 68. CANNIKIN, the Plague. [M.]
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v.
