CANON, n.

1. In ecclesiastical affairs, a law, or rule of doctrine or discipline, enacted by a council and confirmed by the sovereign; a decision of matters in religion, or a regulation of policy or discipline, by a general or provincial council.
2. A law or rule in general.
3. The genuine books of the Holy Scriptures, called the sacred canon, or general rule of moral and religious duty, given by inspiration.
4. A dignitary of the church; a person who possesses a prebend or revenue allotted for the performance of divine service in a cathedral or collegiate church. A cardinal canon is one attached to a church, incardinatus, as a priest to a parish. Domicellary canons, are young canons, not in orders, having no right in any particular chapters. Expectative canons, having no revenue or prebend, but having the title and dignities of canons, a voice in the chapter and a place in the choir, till a prebend should fall. Foreign canons, such as did not officiate in their canonries; opposed to mansionary or residentiary canons. Lay, secular, or honorary canons, laymen admitted out of honor or respect, into some chapter of canons. Regular canons, who live in monasteries or in community, and who, to the practice of their rules, have added the profession of vows. Tertiary canons, who have only the third part of the revenue of the canonicate. – Encyc.
5. In monasteries, a book containing the rules of the order.
6. A catalogue of saints acknowledged and canonized in the Romish Church.
7. The secret words of the mass from the preface to the Pater, in the middle of which the priest consecrates the host. The people are to rehearse this part of the service on their knees, and in a voice lower than can be heard. – Romish Church.
8. In ancient music, a rule or method for determining the intervals of notes, invented by Ptolemy. – Encyc.
9. In modern music, a kind of perpetual fugue, in which the different parts, beginning one after another, repeat incessantly the same air. – Busby.
10. In geometry and algebra, a general rule for the solution of cases of a like nature with the present inquiry. Every last step of an equation is a canon.
11. In pharmacy, a rule for compounding medicines.
12. In surgery, an instrument used in sewing up wounds. Canon-law is a collection of ecclesiastical laws, serving as the rule of church government.

1. A law or rule.
   
   

   Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
   His canon 'gainst self-slaughter.
   Shak.

2. A deep gorge, ravine, or gulch, between high and steep banks, worn by water courses.
   
   
   [Mexico *** Western U. S.]
3. 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.

4. 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.
5. In monasteries, a book containing the rules of a religious order.
6. A catalogue of saints acknowledged and canonized in the Roman Catholic Church.
7. A member of a cathedral chapter; a person who possesses a prebend in a cathedral or collegiate church.
8. 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.
9. The largest size of type having a specific name; -- so called from having been used for printing the canons of the church.
10. The part of a bell by which it is suspended; -- called also ear and shank.
    
    
    [See Illust. of Bell.] Knight.
11. 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.