These three millions live in a small canton of Egypt which cannot maintain twenty thousand people1912, Joseph McCabe (translator), We Must Take Sides; or, The Principle of Action (originally by Voltaire)
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
One of the states comprising the Swiss Confederation.
3
An administrative division within a department in France, often being a subdivision of an arrondissement.
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."2007, Graham Robb, quoting an unnamed writer, “Chapter 2: The Tribes of France, I”, in The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography, W.W. Norton and Company, →ISBN, page 44:
4
A division of Luxembourg, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, etc.
5
Obsolete A subdivision of a county, of Quebec, Canada; equivalent to a township.
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
Government, Heraldry, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Monarchy, Nobility, Politics 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.1662 August 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 21 August 1662]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC:
Etymology 1530s, from Middle French canton, from Old French canton (“corner”); heraldic sense from the 1570s, geographic sense from c. 1600.
1
To delineate as a separate district.
2
To divide into cantons.
3
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
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)
Write loyal cantons of contemnèd love / And sing them loud even in the dead of night.c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]: