canton

noun

1. A division of a political unit.

   “These three millions live in a small canton of Egypt which cannot maintain twenty thousand people”

   “20 May, 1686, Gilbert Burnet, letter from Nimmengen There is another piece of Holbein's, […] in which, in six several cantons, the several parts of our Saviour's passion are represented.”

2. A division of a political unit.
3. A division of a political unit.

   “According to a peasant novelist from the Bourbonnais, this was just as true in the 1840s as it was before the Revolution: "We had not the slightest notion of the outside world. Beyond the limits of the canton, and beyond the known distances, lay mysterious lands that were thought to be dangerous and inhabited by barbarians."”

4. A division of a political unit.
5. (obsolete)A division of a political unit.
6. A small community or clan.
7. A subdivision of a flag, the rectangular inset on the upper hoist (i.e., flagpole) side, the upper-left quadrant of a flag, (the stars of the US national flag are in a canton).
8. A division of a shield occupying one third of the chief, usually on the dexter side, formed by a perpendicular line from the top meeting a horizontal line from the side.

   “The king gave us the arms of England to be borne in a canton in our arms.”

9. (obsolete)A song or canto.

   “Write loyal cantons of contemnèd love / And sing them loud even in the dead of night.”

verb

1. (transitive)To delineate as a separate district.
2. (transitive)To divide into cantons.
3. (transitive)To quarter troops by requisitioning housing from the civilian population.

   “To the end of husbanding the supplies, he will cause to be cantoned in the cities and villages the greatest possible numbers of troops”

4. (intransitive)To be allotted such quarters.

   “An army, falling back upon its lines of magazines, may … make its retreat with more security than one which has to canton, to subsist, and to extend itself to find cantonments.”

name

1. Several places in China:

   “The Province of Quantung lies along upon the Sea-ſhore, having many convenient Havens and Harbors ; it contains ten Counties, and eighty great and ſmall Cities. Quancheu, or Canton by the Portugals, is the Metropolis and chief of the Province ; exceedingly beautified with Pagodes, Palaces, ſtately Structures, and Triumphal Arches ; fortified with ſtrong Walls, Towers, Bulwarks and Redoubts, defended by five Caſtles.”

   “Canton is alſo the name of a large, populous, and wealthy city and port-town of China, ſituated on the river Ta, about fifty miles from the Indian ocean... It is a fortified place, within the walls of which no Chriſtians are permitted to enter, notwithſtanding their great trade thither; it being from thence that they import all manner of Chineſe goods, as china-ware, tea, cabinets, raw and wrought ſilks, gold-duſt, &c.”

   “Though much of the mountain land is still in forest and not occupied by man, the fertile valleys and extended plains are very thickly settled, so that China’s population to the square mile is very great. The most populous city is probably Canton, with a million and a half inhabitants, then comes Peking, the capital, and other seaports and centers of population, as Shanghai, Foochow, Han-kow, etc.”

   “The earliest pioneer of British free trade in Canton was Mr. William Jardine, founder of the still flourishing firm of Jardine, Matheson, and Co., who visited China off and on between the years 1802 and 1818, and resided in Canton continuously from 1820 to January 31, 1839.”

   “Four days later Chiang Kai-shek, now commander-in-chief of the garrisons in Canton, was in full control of the city. The left wing of the Kuomintang was firmly established in power, and Chiang was its acknowledged head.”

2. Several places in China:

   “XVIII. Quanton, or Canton, lies Eaſt and South from Quanſi, and is the moſt Southern Province of the Empire. Nieuhoff ſays, here are ſeveral ſafe Harbours and Roads, that it produces all Neceſſaries for Life, and has two Harveſts a year. Their Winter is very warm, and their Fields always verdant.”

   “The black tea imported by the East-India Company is grown and manufactured in the province of Fokien, with the exception of about one-third of that sort called by us bohea, which third part is produced in the north-eastern corner of the province of Canton, in a district called Wo-Ping, which gives its name to the tea in question.”

   “He left the junk at Shan-wei in the province of Canton, and from there took a boat which conveyed him to Macao.”

   “MANY travellers have passed up the Canton river, and by the way of Nanhiung, over the Meiling Pass and across the Poyang Lake, reached the Yangtsze Kiang through the province of Kiangsi; while very few have reached the same Great River through the province of Hunan, across the Tungting Lake and over the same range of hills, further west, by way of Loh-chang in the province of Canton.”

   “If we look at the map of Canton Province, we observe in the eastern corner the Ch'aou-chow department, with its nine districts. One of them, the Ta-pu district, is throughout inhabited by Hak-kas, the rest by Hok-los.”

3. (dated)Several places in China:
4. A hamlet in Ontario, Canada.
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31. An inner city district and community in Cardiff, Wales (OS grid ref ST1676).
32. A topographical surname from French.