Cane Meaning
/keɪn/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA plant with simple stems, like bamboo or sugar cane, or the stem thereof:
nounA plant with simple stems, like bamboo or sugar cane, or the stem thereof:, The slender, flexible main stem of a plant such as bamboo, including many species in the grass family Gramineae.
Sentence Examples
A staff is used to help steady yourself when walking, much like a cane.
This candy cane tastes like green apple.
I get along quite well now with my new cane.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The elderly man leaned heavily on his wooden ____ while walking.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The elderly man used a wooden ____ to help him walk along the path city.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Akkadian 𒂵𒉡𒌑𒌝 (qanûm)bor. Ancient Greek κᾰ́ννᾰ (kắnnă)bor. Latin canna Old French canebor. Middle English cane English cane From Middle English cane, canne, from Old French cane (“sugar cane”), from Latin canna (“reed”), from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna), from Akkadian 𒄀 (qanû, “reed”). Doublet of canna and kaneh. Related to channel and canal.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Still, a dozen men with rifles, and cartridges to match, stayed behind when they filed through a white aldea lying silent amid the cane, and the Sin Verguenza swung into slightly quicker stride."
— 1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:
"He stalked behind her simple narrative, a kill-joy parent, hasty, intolerant, keeping a special cane to enforce the authority of his sadistic God[.]"
— 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 123:
"Judgelike thou sitt'st, to praise or to arraign / The flying skirmish of the darted cane."
— 1670, John Dryden, The Conquest of Granada:
"The cane was undoubtedly of foreign make, for it had a solid silver ferrule at one end, which was not English hall–marked."
— 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Ayrsham Mystery”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:
"Men that I knew around Wapatomac didn't wear high, shiny plug hats, nor yeller spring overcoats, nor carry canes with ivory heads as big as a catboat's anchor, as you might say."
— 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter X, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The elderly man leaned heavily on his wooden ____ while walking.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The elderly man used a wooden ____ to help him walk along the path city.