Word.ws English Dictionary

cane

/keɪn/

cane noun: the slender, flexible main stem of a plant such as bamboo, including many species in the grass family Gramineae.

Noun

cane (countable and uncountable, plural canes)

  1. (uncountable) The slender, flexible main stem of a plant such as bamboo, including many species in the grass family Gramineae.
    Synonyms:
    stem, stalk, trunk
  2. (uncountable) The plant itself, including many species in the grass family Gramineae; a reed.
    Synonyms:
    reed
  3. (uncountable) Sugar cane.
    • 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
    Synonyms:
    molasses cane
  4. (Southern, US) Maize or, rarely, sorghum, when such plants are processed to make molasses (treacle) or sugar.
  5. (countable) A short rod or stick, traditionally of wood or bamboo, used for corporal punishment.
    • 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
    Synonyms:
    rod, switch
  6. (with-definite-article) Corporal punishment by beating with a cane.
    • The teacher gave his student the cane for throwing paper.
    Synonyms:
    a caning, six of the best, whipping, cuts
  7. A lance or dart made of cane.
    • Judgelike thou sitt'st, to praise or to arraign / The flying skirmish of the darted cane.1670, John Dryden, The Conquest of Granada
  8. (countable) A strong short staff used for support or decoration during walking; a walking stick.
    • After breaking his leg, he needed a cane to walk.
    • 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...
    Synonyms:
    staff, walking stick
  9. (countable) A length of colored and/or patterned glass rod, used in the specific glassblowing technique called caneworking.
  10. (countable) A long rod often collapsible and commonly white (for visibility to other persons), used by vision impaired persons for guidance in determining their course and for probing for obstacles in their path.
    Synonyms:
    blind man's cane, white cane
  11. (uncountable) Split rattan, as used in wickerwork and basketry.
    • The bed was the most extravagant piece. Its graceful cane halftester rose high towards the cornice and was so festooned in carved white wood that the effect was positively insecure, as if the great couch were trimmed with icing sugar.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
  12. A local European measure of length; the canna.

Verb

cane (third-person singular simple present canes, present participle caning, simple past and past participle caned)

  1. To strike or beat with a cane or similar implement.
  2. (transitive) To make or furnish with cane or rattan.
    • to cane chairs
    • In colonial days, threesquare was used to cane chair seats.2018 March 14, Bryan MacKay, Paddle Maryland: A Guide to Rivers, Creeks, and Water Trails, JHU Press, →ISBN, page 38
  3. (New Zealand, UK, slang) To destroy; to comprehensively defeat.
    • Mudchester Rovers were caned 10-0.
  4. (New Zealand, UK, slang) To do something well, in a competent fashion.
  5. (UK, slang) To go very fast.
    Synonyms:
    cane it
  6. (Australia, UK, intransitive, slang) To produce extreme pain.
    • Don’t hit me with that. It really canes!
    • Mate, my legs cane!

Proper noun (1) capitalized: CanE

CanE

  1. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of Canadian English.
    • Finally, section (2.5) reviews diachronic language studies on CanE, which is the area of focus in the present study.2008, Stefan Dollinger, New-Dialect Formation in Canada, →ISBN
    • The present study focusses on the 'other' North American variety of English, Canadian English (CanE) from a diachronic perspective.2008, Susan M. Fitzmaurice, Donka Minkova, Studies in the History of the English Language IV, →ISBN
    Synonyms:
    CE, en-CE

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Cane

Cane (plural Canes)

  1. A surname.

cane meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Odia

cane in Hindi

slender flexible stem of plants such as bamboo
बेत bet, बेँत bẽt
plant itself
बेत bet, बेँत bẽt
a short wooden or bamboo rod or stick used for corporal punishment
बेत bet, छड़ी chaṛī, डंडा ḍaṇḍā, बेँत bẽt
long collapsible rod used by vision impaired people
बेत bet, छड़ी chaṛī, डंडा ḍaṇḍā, बेँत bẽt

cane in Marathi

slender flexible stem of plants such as bamboo
बेताची काठी betācī kāṭhī

cane in Bengali

slender flexible stem of plants such as bamboo
বেত bet

cane in Odia

ବେତ, ବେତକୁ
More languagesFewer languages
cane in Assamese
বেত bet
cane in Tagalog
tubo
cane in Arabic
بُوص būṣ, قَصَبَة qaṣaba

Examples of cane in a sentence

  • 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:
  • She was given mobility training as well — she uses a white cane to make her way independently to the hospital and asks for help to navigate traffic-ridden roads if she needs it.2024 September 8, Kamala Thiagarajan, “Women who are blind play a critical role in identifying possible breast cancers”, in NPR:

All 40 example sentences with cane

Synonyms of cane

8 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of cane

Forms of cane

Noun
pluralcanes
Verb
third-person singular presentcanes
present participlecaning
past participlecaned
pastcaned
Proper noun
pluralCanes

Plural of cane: canes

Origin of 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.

Words formed from cane

Phrases with cane

27 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with cane

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about cane

What does cane mean?
Cane means the slender, flexible main stem of a plant such as bamboo, including many species in the grass family Gramineae.
What is cane in Hindi?
Cane in Hindi is बेत (bet), बेँत (bẽt), छड़ी (chaṛī). See Cane meaning in Hindi.
How do you use cane in a sentence?
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.
What part of speech is cane?
Cane can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce cane?
Cane is pronounced /keɪn/.
What is the plural of cane?
The plural of cane is canes.

Words near cane in the dictionary

  1. candystripers
  2. candytuft
  3. candytufts
  4. candywrapper
  5. candywrappers
  6. cane
  7. cane beardgrass
  8. cane beetle
  9. cane beetles
  10. cane bluestem
  11. cane bluestems

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cane (page history and authors); CanE (page history and authors); Cane (page history and authors); cane (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-cane.ogg.

Cite this entry: “cane.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cane. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.