cannon

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
cannon/ˈkanən/

▶noun

• 1 (pl. usu. same) a large, heavy piece of artillery formerly used in warfare.

  ■ an automatic heavy gun that fires shells from an aircraft or tank.

• 2 Billiards & Snooker, chiefly Brit. a stroke in which the cue ball strikes two balls successively. [C19: alt. of carom.]

• 3 Engineering a heavy cylinder or hollow drum rotating independently on a shaft.

▶verb chiefly Brit.

• 1 collide with something forcefully or at an angle.

• 2 Billiards & Snooker make a cannon shot.

– origin ME: from Fr. canon, from Ital. cannone ‘large tube’, from canna (see cane).