"canon" - meanings, definitions, synonyms, thesaurus and antonyms

\Can"on\, n. [OE. canon, canoun, AS. canon rule (cf. F.
canon, LL. canon, and, for sense 7, F. chanoine, LL.
canonicus), fr. L. canon a measuring line, rule, model, fr.
Gr. ? rule, rod, fr. ?, ?, red. See {Cane}, and cf.
{Canonical}.]
1. A law or rule.

         Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon
         'gainst self-slaughter.               --Shak.

2. (Eccl.) A law, or rule of doctrine or discipline, enacted
   by a council and confirmed by the pope or the sovereign; a
   decision, regulation, code, or constitution made by
   ecclesiastical authority.

         Various canons which were made in councils held in
         the second centry.                    --Hock.

3. The collection of books received as genuine Holy
   Scriptures, called the {sacred canon}, or general rule of
   moral and religious duty, given by inspiration; the Bible;
   also, any one of the canonical Scriptures. See {Canonical
   books}, under {Canonical}, a.

4. In monasteries, a book containing the rules of a religious
   order.

5. A catalogue of saints acknowledged and canonized in the
   Roman Catholic Church.

6. A member of a cathedral chapter; a person who possesses a
   prebend in a cathedral or collegiate church.

7. (Mus.) A musical composition in which the voices begin one
   after another, at regular intervals, successively taking
   up the same subject. It either winds up with a coda
   (tailpiece), or, as each voice finishes, commences anew,
   thus forming a perpetual fugue or round. It is the
   strictest form of imitation. See {Imitation}.

8. (Print.) The largest size of type having a specific name;
   -- so called from having been used for printing the canons
   of the church.

9. The part of a bell by which it is suspended; -- called
   also {ear} and {shank}.

Note: [See Illust. of {Bell}.] --Knight.

10. (Billiards) See {Carom}.

{Apostolical canons}. See under {Apostolical}.

{Augustinian canons}, {Black canons}. See under
   {Augustinian}.

{Canon capitular}, {Canon residentiary}, a resident member of
   a cathedral chapter (during a part or the whole of the
   year).

{Canon law}. See under {Law}.

{Canon of the Mass} (R. C. Ch.), that part of the mass,
   following the Sanctus, which never changes.

{Honorary canon}, a canon who neither lived in a monastery,
   nor kept the canonical hours.

{Minor canon} (Ch. of Eng.), one who has been admitted to a
   chapter, but has not yet received a prebend.

{Regular canon} (R. C. Ch.), one who lived in a conventual
   community and follower the rule of St. Austin; a Black
   canon.

{Secular canon} (R. C. Ch.), one who did not live in a
   monastery, but kept the hours.

\Ca*[~n]on"\, n. [Sp., a tube or hollow, fr. ca[~n]a reed,
fr. L. canna. See {Cane}.]
A deep gorge, ravine, or gulch, between high and steep banks,
worn by water courses. [Mexico & Western U. S.]