Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Canon \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.