From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcanistercan‧is‧ter /ˈkænɪstə $ -ər/ noun [countable] 1 PMWa round metal case that contains gas and bursts when it is thrown or fired from a gun Police fired tear gas canisters into the crowd.2 CONTAIN/HOLDa metal container for keeping something in a tea canister a petrol canister
Examples from the Corpus
canister• canisters of film• Bhutto was choked by tear gas earlier when police fired canisters directly at her open-top jeep.• a flour canister• Police fired tear-gas canisters at the crowd of protesting students.• They met the same tempest of shell, grape, canister, and musketry, and recoiled.• Guns were run up close to the parapet, and double charges of canister played their part in the bloody work.• If it is chosen, the underground site could start receiving canisters of waste in 2010, Olds said.• The exhaust gas is mixed with a little air from a small pump at a point just before it enters the canister.• A seven-year-old child was reportedly hit by one of the canisters and taken, injured in the leg, to hospital.• The canisters were landing in a cornfield about half-a-mile away.• The M-16, the. 45 Colt, the ammunition, the backpack of water canisters and chow.Origin canister (1400-1500) Latin canistrum “basket”, from Greek kanastron, from kanna; → CANE1 