cane

From Middle English cane, canne, from Old French cane (“sugar cane”), from Latin canna (“reed”), from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna), from Akkadian 𒄀 (qanû, “reed”), from Sumerian 𒄀𒈾 (gi.na). Doublet of canna and kaneh. Related to channel and canal.

• IPA^(key): /keɪn/

• Audio (US); [kʰẽːn]:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪn
• Homophone: Cain

cane (countable and uncountable, plural canes)

1. A plant with simple stems, like bamboo or sugar cane, or the stem thereof:
   1. (uncountable) The slender, flexible main stem of a plant such as bamboo, including many species in the grass family Gramineae.

      Synonyms: stem, stalk, (of a tree) trunk

   2. (uncountable) The plant itself, including many species in the grass family Gramineae; a reed.

      Synonym: reed

   3. (uncountable) Sugar cane.

      Synonym: molasses cane

      • 1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:

        Still, a dozen men with rifles, and cartridges to match, stayed behind when they filed through a white aldea lying silent amid the cane, and the Sin Verguenza swung into slightly quicker stride.

   4. (US, Southern) Maize or, rarely, sorghum, when such plants are processed to make molasses (treacle) or sugar.
2. The stem of such a plant adapted for use as a tool:
   1. (countable) A short rod or stick, traditionally of wood or bamboo, used for corporal punishment.

      Synonyms: rod, switch

      • 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 123:

        He stalked behind her simple narrative, a kill-joy parent, hasty, intolerant, keeping a special cane to enforce the authority of his sadistic God[.]

   2. (with "the") Corporal punishment by beating with a cane.

      Synonyms: a caning, six of the best, whipping, cuts

      The teacher gave his student the cane for throwing paper.

   3. A lance or dart made of cane.
      • 1670, John Dryden, The Conquest of Granada:

        Judgelike thou sitt'st, to praise or to arraign / The flying skirmish of the darted cane.

3. A rod-shaped tool or device, resembling the stem of the plant:
   1. (countable) A strong short staff used for support or decoration during walking; a walking stick.

      Synonyms: staff, walking stick

      After breaking his leg, he needed a cane to walk.

      • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Ayrsham Mystery”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

        The cane was undoubtedly of foreign make, for it had a solid silver ferrule at one end, which was not English hall–marked.

      • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter X, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

        Men that I knew around Wapatomac didn't wear high, shiny plug hats, nor yeller spring overcoats, nor carry canes with ivory heads as big as a catboat's anchor, as you might say.

      • 2024 September 8, Kamala Thiagarajan, “Women who are blind play a critical role in identifying possible breast cancers”, in NPR‎^[1]:

        She was given mobility training as well — she uses a white cane to make her way independently to the hospital and asks for help to navigate traffic-ridden roads if she needs it. The effort is worth it.

   2. (countable, glassblowing) A length of colored and/or patterned glass rod, used in the specific glassblowing technique called caneworking.
   3. (countable) A long rod often collapsible and commonly white (for visibility to other persons), used by vision impaired persons for guidance in determining their course and for probing for obstacles in their path.

      Synonyms: blind man's cane, white cane

4. (uncountable) Split rattan, as used in wickerwork and basketry.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     The bed was the most extravagant piece. Its graceful cane halftester rose high towards the cornice and was so festooned in carved white wood that the effect was positively insecure, as if the great couch were trimmed with icing sugar.

5. A local European measure of length; the canna.

cane (third-person singular simple present canes, present participle caning, simple past and past participle caned)

1. To strike or beat with a cane or similar implement.
2. (transitive) To make or furnish with cane or rattan.

   to cane chairs

   • 2018 March 14, Bryan MacKay, Paddle Maryland: A Guide to Rivers, Creeks, and Water Trails, JHU Press, →ISBN, page 38:

     In colonial days, threesquare was used to cane chair seats.

3. (UK, New Zealand, slang) To destroy; to comprehensively defeat.

   Mudchester Rovers were caned 10-0.

4. (UK, New Zealand, slang) To do something well, in a competent fashion.
5. (UK, slang) To go very fast.

   Synonym: cane it

6. (UK, Australia, slang, intransitive) To produce extreme pain.

   Don’t hit me with that. It really canes!

   Mate, my legs cane!

• -ance, Caen, Cena, Nace, acne, ance

From Latin canis, canem (“dog”). Cognates with Italian cane, French chien, Sicilian cani.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkanɛ/

cane m (plural cani, feminine cagna)

1. (Cismontane dialects) dog (Canis familiaris)

• (Ultramontane dialects) ghjacaru

• “cane, cani” in INFCOR: Banca di dati di a lingua corsa

Inherited from Middle French cane (“duck, female duck”, literally “loater, little boat”), from Old French cane (“boat, ship; waterbird”), from Middle Low German kane (“boat”), from Proto-Germanic *kaną (“boat, vessel”). See Proto-Germanic *kanô (“boat, vessel”). Cognate with Norwegian kane (“swan-shaped vessel”), Dutch kaan (“boat”), German Kahn (“boat”), Old Norse kæna (“little boat”), and possibly Old Norse knǫrr (“ship”) (whence also Late Latin canardus (“ship”), from Germanic; and Old English cnearr (“merchant ship”)). Related to French canot (“little boat”).

• IPA^(key): /kan/

• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Somain)):

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• Homophone: Cannes

cane f (plural canes)

1. duck (female duck)

• canard

• “cane”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

• Caen

• IPA^(key): /ˈka.ne/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ane
• Hyphenation: cà‧ne

From the Latin canis, canem (“dog”). Cognate with Sicilian cani.

cane m (plural cani, feminine cagna, diminutive canìno m or canìna f or cagnétto m or cagnétta f or cagnettìno m or cagnettìna f, augmentative cagnóne, pejorative cagnàccio, endearing cagnolìno)

1. dog, male dog

   Hypernym: canide

2. (firearms) hammer

cane (invariable)

1. freezing, biting (of cold)

   Oggi fa un freddo cane! ― Today is freezing cold!

2. terrible, dreadful, awful (of pain)

• abbaiare
• bau

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

cane f

1. plural of cana

cane

1. feminine plural of cano

• acne, cena

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈka.nɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkaː.ne]

cane

1. second-person singular present active imperative of canō

cane

1. ablative singular of canis

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkaː.neː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkaː.ne]

cānē

1. second-person singular present active imperative of cāneō

• "cane", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “cane”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃanə/ [ˈt͡ʃa.nə]

cane

1. (colloquial) alternative form of macam mana
   • 2026 February 7, @RIKI_RIK0, X‎^[2] (post), archived from the original on 13-4-2026:

     Cane nak guna grok ni ?

     How to use Grok?

From Old French cane, from Latin canna, from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna), from Akkadian 𒄀 (qanû, “reed”), from Sumerian 𒄀𒈾 (gi.na).

• canne, kane, kanne

• IPA^(key): /ˈkaːn(ə)/

cane (plural canes)

1. bamboo, sugar cane, flax, or a similar simple-stemmed plant
2. the stem or stalk of such a plant, often used to write with
3. (rare) a metal implement used for surgery
4. (rare) a bodily passage or tube, such as the trachea

• canel

• English: cane
• Scots: cane

• “cāne, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 1 August 2018.

cane

1. alternative form of canne

From Latin canna (“reed, cane”).

cane oblique singular, f (oblique plural canes, nominative singular cane, nominative plural canes)

1. tube

• French: canne
• Norman: tchêne (Jersey), kyeen (Sark)
• → Middle English: cane, canne, kane, kanne
  • English: cane
  • Scots: cane

• cani (Campidanese)

From Latin canis, canem (“dog”). Cognate with Italian cane.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkane/

cane m or f (plural canes)

1. (Logudorese, Nuorese) dog

   Synonym: perru

cane

1. plural of cana