cantoning

Verb

canton (third-person singular simple present cantons, present participle cantoning, simple past and past participle cantoned)

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 troops1854, O. F. Winship, E. E. McLean (translators), Summary of the Art of War (originally by Antoine-Henri Jomini)
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.1854, O. F. Winship, E. E. McLean (translators), Summary of the Art of War (originally by Antoine-Henri Jomini)

See all 45 meanings of canton