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carry out evictions against cottage occupiers.

1886. Notes and Queries, 7 S., i., p. 445.

Canister, subs. (general).—1. The head. [A transference of the original meaning, 'a box or case for holding things.'] For synonyms, see Crumpet.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. To mill his cannister; to break his head.

1821. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 4. Tom. I've nobb'd him on the canister.

1885. Bell's Life, Jan. 3, p. 8, col. 4. Once more did the star of Australia rise, but to set from additional raps on the canister. He fell on his knees, and his head droped on his breast.

2. (common).—A hat. [Formerly canister-cap (see sense 1); subsequently shortened to canister.] For synonyms, see Golgotha.

1887. Atkin, House Scraps. Turning round, I saw my unfortunate beaver, or canister, as it was called by the gentry who had it in their keeping, bounding backwards and forwards.

Cank, adj. (old).—Dumb; silent. [Curiously enough, cank also signifies 'to chatter,' or 'cackle as a goose'; it only survives in this latter sense.]

1673. R. Head, Canting Acad., 36. Cank: dumb.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Cank: dumb.

Cannibal, subs. (Cambridge University).—In the bumping races at Cambridge, a college may be represented by more than one boat. The best talent is put into the first, but it has sometimes happened that the crew of the second have got so well together that it has disappointed the prophets and bumped the first of its own college. In this case it is termed a cannibal, it having eaten up its own kind, and a fine is enacted from it by the University Boat Club.

Cannikin or Canniken, subs. (old).—The plague. [Grose includes it in his dictionary under the sense of 'a small can,' but this was not a slang usage.]

1688. R. Holme, Armoury. III., iii., § 68. Cannikin, the Plague. [m.]

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. s.v.

Cannis-Cove, subs. (American).—A dog-fancier. [Either from Latin canis, a dog, or the Fr. caniche, poodle + cove, a man.]

Cannon.—See Canon.

Cannon-Balls, subs. (political).—1. A nickname, now obsolete, given to the irreconcileable opponents of free trade in England.

1858. Saturday Review, 30 Oct., p. 413, col. 2. The amendment which sealed for ever the fate of Protection, was carried [in 1852] with only fifty dissentient voices—the celebrated cannon-balls. [m.]

2. (venery).—The testicles. For synonyms see cods.

Canoe. To paddle one's own canoe, phr. (American).—To make one's own way in life; to exhibit skill and energy; to succeed unaided; a slang phrase of Western American origin, but now universal. [Extremely careful and clever manipulation is required in the management of canoes, especially in shooting rapids; otherwise the surging body of water might swamp the boat, or sunken rocks strike and seriously damage it. Hence the adoption of such an expression to signify skill, close attention, and