cane

cane
    n 1: a stick that people can lean on to help them walk
    2: a strong slender often flexible stem as of bamboos, reeds,
       rattans, or sugar cane
    3: a stiff switch used to hit students as punishment
    v 1: beat with a cane [syn: {cane}, {flog}, {lambaste},
         {lambast}]
    

Cane \Cane\ (k[=a]n), n. [OE. cane, canne, OF. cane, F. canne,
   L. canna, fr. Gr. ka`nna, ka`nnh; prob. of Semitic origin;
   cf. Heb. q[=a]neh reed. Cf. {Canister}, {canon}, 1st
   {Cannon}.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. (Bot.)
      (a) A name given to several peculiar palms, species of
          {Calamus} and {D[ae]manorops}, 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.
          [1913 Webster]

                Like light canes, that first rise big and brave.
                                                  --B. Jonson.
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   Note: In the Southern United States {great cane} is the
         {Arundinaria macrosperma}, and {small cane} is.
         {Arundinaria tecta}.
         [1913 Webster]

   2. A walking stick; a staff; -- so called because originally
      made of one of the species of cane.
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            Stir the fire with your master's cane. --Swift.
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   3. A lance or dart made of cane. [R.]
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            Judgelike thou sitt'st, to praise or to arraign
            The flying skirmish of the darted cane. --Dryden.
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   4. A local European measure of length. See {Canna}.
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   {Cane borer} (Zool.), A beetle {(Oberea bimaculata)} which,
      in the larval state, bores into pith and destroy the canes
      or stalks of the raspberry, blackberry, etc.

   {Cane mill}, a mill for grinding sugar canes, for the
      manufacture of sugar.

   {Cane trash}, the crushed stalks and other refuse of sugar
      cane, used for fuel, etc.
      [1913 Webster]
    

Cane \Cane\ (k[=a]n), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Caned} (k[=a]nd); p.
   pr. & vb. n. {Caning}.]
   1. To beat with a cane. --Macaulay.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To make or furnish with cane or rattan; as, to cane
      chairs.
      [1913 Webster]
    

Cane
a tall sedgy plant with a hollow stem, growing in moist places.
In Isa. 43:24; Jer. 6:20, the Hebrew word _kaneh_ is thus
rendered, giving its name to the plant. It is rendered "reed" in
1 Kings 14:15; Job 40:21; Isa. 19:6; 35:7. In Ps. 68:30 the
expression "company of spearmen" is in the margin and the
Revised Version "beasts of the reeds," referring probably to the
crocodile or the hippopotamus as a symbol of Egypt. In 2 Kings
18:21; Isa. 36:6; Ezek. 29:6, 7, the reference is to the weak,
fragile nature of the reed. (See {CALAMUS}.)
    

180 Moby Thesaurus words for "cane":
      Boston type, Braille, Malacca cane, New York point, Optacon,
      Pathsounder, Seeing Eye dog, Visotoner, advocate, aftergrass,
      alpenstock, anthrophore, arm, athletic supporter, axis, back,
      backbone, backing, bamboo, bandeau, baste, bastinado, baton,
      bearer, beat, belabor, belt, birch, bole, bra, brace, bracer,
      bracket, brassiere, buffet, buttress, carpophore, carrier, caudex,
      caulicle, caulis, cereal, cereal plant, cervix, club, corn, corset,
      cowhide, crook, crosier, cross, cross-staff, crutch, crutch-stick,
      cudgel, culm, cut, drub, embosser, farinaceous plant, ferule,
      flagellate, flail, flog, fog, footstalk, forage grass,
      foundation garment, fulcrum, funicule, funiculus, fustigate,
      girdle, give a whipping, give the stick, grain, graminaceous plant,
      grass, guide dog, guy, guywire, handstaff, haulm,
      high-speed embosser, horsewhip, jock, jockstrap, knout, lace, lash,
      lawn grass, lay on, leafstalk, line letter, lituus, mainstay,
      maintainer, mast, neck, noctograph, optophone, ornamental grass,
      paddle, pandybat, pastoral staff, paterissa, pedicel, peduncle,
      personal sonar, petiole, petiolule, petiolus, pistol-whip, pommel,
      prop, pummel, quarterstaff, rattan, rawhide, reed, reinforce,
      reinforcement, reinforcer, rest, resting place, rigging, rod,
      ruler, scourge, seedstalk, sensory aid, shillelagh, shoulder,
      shroud, sight-saver type, smite, spank, spear, spine, spire, sprit,
      staff, stalk, standing rigging, stave, stay, stem, stick,
      stiffener, stipe, stock, strap, straw, strengthener,
      string alphabet, stripe, support, supporter, sustainer,
      swagger stick, swanking stick, swinge, switch, talking book,
      thrash, thump, tigella, trounce, truncheon, trunk,
      ultrasonic spectacles, upholder, visagraph, walking stick, wallop,
      whale, whip, whop, writing frame, writing stamps