[Cf. CANION (also spelt cannon), and CANNON sb.1] A cylindrical or sausage-like curl, properly horizontal, like the canions of breeches. Hence Cannon curls.
c. 1800. Mem. Mary Somerville, iii. (1873), 41. He wore a powdered wig, with cannons at the ears, and a pigtail.
1857. Geo. Eliot, Sc. Cleric. Life, Janet’s Repent., v. 218. With … sandy hair, which was this morning arranged in taller cannon curls than usual. Ibid., II. 190. Old lawyer Pittman’s daughters with cannon curls surmounted with large hats.
