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.