Category:Cane

Cane, n. Etym: [OE. cane, canne, OF. cane, F. canne, L. canna, fr. Gr. qaneh reed. Cf. Canister, canon, 1st Cannon.]

1. (Bot.) (a) A name given to several peculiar palms, species of Calamus and Dæmanorops, having very long, smooth flexible stems, commonly called rattans. (b) Any plant with long, hard, elastic stems, as reeds and bamboos of many kinds; also, the sugar cane. (c) Stems of other plants are sometimes called canes; as, the canes of a raspberry. Like light canes, that first rise big and brave. B. Jonson.

Note: In the Southern United States great cane is the Arundinaria macrosperma, and small cane is. A. tecta.

2. A walking stick; a staff; -- so called because originally made of one the species of cane. Stir the fire with your master's cane. Swift.

3. A lance or dart made of cane. [R.] Judgelike thou sitt'st, to praise or to arraign The flying skirmish of the darted cane. Dryden.

4. A local European measure of length. See Canna. Cane borer (Zoö.), A beetle (Oberea bimaculata) which, in the larval state, bores into pith and destroy the canes or stalks of the raspberry, blackberry, etc. -- Cane mill, a mill for grinding sugar canes, for the manufacture of sugar. -- Cane trash, the crushed stalks and other refuse of sugar cane, used for fuel, etc. -- cane-brake, a thick, dense growth of cane or sugarcane.

cane Cane, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Caned; p. pr. & vb. n. Caning.]

1. To beat with a cane. Macaulay.

2. To make or furnish with cane or rattan; as, to cane chairs.

- ---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Cane - A tall sedgy plant with a hollow stem, growing in moist places. In Isaiah 43:24; Jeremiah 6:20, the Hebrew word Kaneh is thus rendered, giving its name to the plant. It is rendered "reed" in 1 Kings 14:15; Job 40:21; Isaiah 19:6; Isaiah 35:7. In Psalms 68:30 the expression "company of spearmen" is in the margin and the Revised Version "beasts of the reeds," referring probably to the crocodile or the hippopotamus as a symbol of Egypt. In 2 Kings 18:21; Isaiah 36:6; Ezekiel 29:6 - 29:7, the reference is to the weak, fragile nature of the reed. (See CALAMUS.)