canister
[kan-uh-ster]
- a small box or jar, often one of a kitchen set, for holding tea, coffee, flour, and sugar.
- Also called canister shot. case shot.
- the part of a gas mask containing the neutralizing substances through which poisoned air is filtered.
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Origin of canister
1670–80; < Latin canistrum wicker basket < Greek kánastron, derivative of kánna reed (see cane), with -astron, variant of -tron suffix of instrument (probably from verbal derivatives, as stégastron covering, from stegázein to cover)
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Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for canister
Contemporary Examples
On another, Garrison said he handed a doctor a bottle of wine in a canister packed with $100 bills.
The smell of tear gas is as unique as the sound of its canister being deployed.
Aurora Survivors Tell of Their Brave Return to ‘The Dark Knight Rises’Jacqueline Keavney Lader, Don Lader
August 3, 2012
I took film canisters and, essentially, rolled each breast around the canister, then fit them into the cup of the corset.
Having Lou Dobbs and Rick Kaplan reporting to me at the same time was like holding a canister of nitroglycerin in each hand.
Historical Examples
Then we had no quarters at all, being perfectly exposed to grape and canister.
Ned MyersJames Fenimore Cooper
The shells and the grape and the canister and the bullets are smashing through them.
The Rock of ChickamaugaJoseph A. Altsheler
Roll it thin, cut it into little cakes with a wine glass, or the top of a canister, and bake them fifteen minutes on tin plates.
The storm of canister caused them to waver a little, but that was all.
Personal Recollections of a CavalrymanJ. H. (James Harvey) Kidd
This done, the grape and canister told with fearful execution.
The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. DidoHenry Keppel
canister
- a container, usually made of metal, in which dry food, such as tea or coffee, is stored
- (formerly)
- a type of shrapnel shell for firing from a cannon
- Also called: canister shot, case shotthe shot or shrapnel packed inside this
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Word Origin
C17: from Latin canistrum basket woven from reeds, from Greek kanastron, from kanna reed, cane 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for canister
n.
late 15c., "basket," from Latin canistrum "wicker basket" for bread, fruit, flowers, etc., from Greek kanystron "basket made from reed," from kanna (see cane (n.)). It came to mean "metal receptacle" (1711) through influence of can (n.). As short for canister shot, it is attested from 1801, so called for its casing.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper