cane Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun a stick that people can lean on to help them walk
noun a strong slender often flexible stem as of bamboos, reeds, rattans, or sugar cane
noun a stiff switch used to hit students as punishment
verb beat with a cane
flog; lambaste; lambast.

OE. cane, canne, OF. cane, F. canne, L. canna, fr. Gr. , prob. of Semitic origin; cf. Heb. qaneh reed. Cf. Canister, canon, 1st Cannon.

(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.
✍ In the Southern United States great cane is the Arundinaria macrosperma, and small cane is. A. tecta.
A walking stick; a staff; -- so called because originally made of one the species of cane.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.
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.
A local European measure of length. See Canna.

imperfect & past participle Caned ; present participle & verbal noun Caning