Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Canton \Can"ton\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Cantoned}; p. pr. & vb.
   n. {Cantoning}.] [Cf. F. cantonner.]
   1. To divide into small parts or districts; to mark off or
      separate, as a distinct portion or division.

            They canton out themselves a little Goshen in the
            intellectual world.                   --Locke.

   2. (Mil.) To allot separate quarters to, as to different
      parts or divisions of an army or body of troops.

Canton \Can"ton\, n.
   A song or canto [Obs.]

         Write loyal cantons of contemned love.   --Shak.

Canton \Can"ton\, n. [F. canton, augm. of OF. cant edge, corner.
   See 1st {Cant}.]
   1. A small portion; a division; a compartment.

            That little canton of land called the ``English
            pale''                                --Davies.

            There is another piece of Holbein's, . . . in which,
            in six several cantons, the several parts of our
            Savior's passion are represented.     --Bp. Burnet.

   2. A small community or clan.

   3. A small territorial district; esp. one of the twenty-two
      independent states which form the Swiss federal republic;
      in France, a subdivision of an arrondissement. See
      {Arrondissement}.

   4. (Her.) A division of a shield occupying one third part of
      the chief, usually on the dexter side, formed by a
      perpendicular line from the top of the shield, meeting a
      horizontal line from the side.

            The king gave us the arms of England to be borne in
            a canton in our arms.                 --Evelyn.

Source : WordNet®

Canton
     n 1: a city on the Zhu Jiangi delta in southern China; the
          capital of Guangdong province and a major deep-water
          port [syn: {Guangzhou}, {Kuangchou}, {Kwangchow}]
     2: a small administrative division of a country