They canton out themselves a little Goshen in the
intellectual world. --Locke.
2. (Mil.) To allot separate quarters to, as to different
parts or divisions of an army or body of troops.
Write loyal cantons of contemned love. --Shak.
That little canton of land called the ``English
pale'' --Davies.
There is another piece of Holbein's, . . . in which,
in six several cantons, the several parts of our
Savior's passion are represented. --Bp. Burnet.
3. A small territorial district; esp. one of the twenty-two
independent states which form the Swiss federal republic;
in France, a subdivision of an arrondissement. See
{Arrondissement}.
4. (Her.) A division of a shield occupying one third part of
the chief, usually on the dexter side, formed by a
perpendicular line from the top of the shield, meeting a
horizontal line from the side.
The king gave us the arms of England to be borne in
a canton in our arms. --Evelyn.