con

Less common meanings

8. 8
   steering dutynoununcountable

   Alternative form of conn. The duty of directing a ship's steering, as in take the con or have the con.

   At midnight the navigator took the con and brought the ship onto its new heading.

   With the captain ashore, the first mate had the con for the rest of the night.

   Note

   The noun names a duty rather than a thing, so it takes no plural and almost always comes with the: an officer takes the con to start directing the ship and has the con until someone else takes over. That article, with have or take before it, is what marks the noun apart from the steering verb spelled the same way. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

   • The nautical noun denotes responsibility for directing a ship's movements. en.wikipedia.org
9. 9
   studyverbraretransitive

   To study or examine something carefully, especially to gain knowledge of it; to learn something, or learn it by heart.

   The hawk rested on a crag of the gorge and conned the terrain with a fierce and frowning eye.

   1963, D'Arcy Niland, Dadda jumped over two elephants: short stories

   I did not come into parliament to con my lesson. I had earned my pension before I set my foot in St. Stephen's chapel.

   1795, Edmund Burke, Letter to a Noble Lord on the Attacks Made upon him and his Pension

   Similarstudy, examine, peruse, scrutinize, memorize

   Note

   A verb for learning that descends from Old English cunnan, "to know, know how". It kept company with rote and lessons: Shakespeare's Cassius complains that his faults are learned and conned by rote, and Burke did not enter parliament to con his lesson. With over it means to pore through something, as when Thackeray's chaperon conned over the peerage. It is rare today. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • The studying verb descends from Old English cunnan, meaning ‘to know, know how’. en.wiktionary.org
   • Shakespeare’s Cassius complains that his faults are learned and conned by rote, in Julius Caesar, Act IV, scene iii. shakespeare.mit.edu
   • Edmund Burke wrote that he did not enter Parliament to con his lesson. gutenberg.org
   • Thackeray uses ‘conned over the peerage’ for studying it, with a chaperon among those doing so, in Vanity Fair. gutenberg.org
10. 10
    building changenouncolloquialBritishcountable

    The conversion of part of a building, such as a loft, to a new use.

    We got three quotes for the loft con before choosing a builder.

    The builders say the loft con should add a bedroom and a small bathroom by spring.

    UsageMostly in loft con.

    Similarconversion

11. 11
    verbobsolete

    To know, understand, or acknowledge something.

    Of Muses Hobbinol, I conne no skill

    1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender

    Note

    The older, plainer meaning, closer to the Old English verb for knowing than the studying verb is. Spenser, writing as Immeritô in The Shepheardes Calender (1579), has a speaker say "I conne no skill" of the Muses, meaning he has no knowledge of them. It is obsolete now: know, understand or acknowledge does the work, and the knowing con survives only as a word for study. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • Knowing is the ancestral sense, directly reflected in Old English cunnan. en.wiktionary.org
    • Edmund Spenser used the pseudonym Immeritô for The Shepheardes Calender. en.wiktionary.org
    • The Shepheardes Calender was first published in 1579; its original title page also bears that year. folger.edu
    • The speaker Colin says ‘I conne no skill’ of the Muses in the June eclogue. en.wikisource.org
    • ‘Conne’ in this passage means ‘know’, supporting the explanation that the speaker has no knowledge of the Muses. en.wiktionary.org
12. 12
    lung diseasenounobsoleteuncountable

    Consumption, the disease now known as pulmonary tuberculosis.

    Her brother caught the con in the mill town and was sent to the country to recover.

    That winter, the lodgers whispered that the pale young man upstairs had the con.

    Note

    Consumption cut to one syllable, and now obsolete. Today a bare con would be heard as a swindle or a convict, so outside historical fiction the disease goes by tuberculosis. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • The disease name con is a clipping of consumption. en.wiktionary.org
13. 13
    squirrelnounobsolete

    A squirrel, especially the red squirrel.

    Note

    Old dialect speech had this short name for the squirrel, and where it came from is uncertain. It may be a clipped form of Middle English acquerne or okerne, "squirrel", which goes back to Old English ācweorna. Either way it is unrelated to the swindle or the convict, and present-day English simply says squirrel. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • Con was a dialect name for a squirrel. storage.lib.uchicago.edu
    • Its origin is uncertain, with clipping of Middle English acquerne proposed as a possibility. en.wiktionary.org
    • Acquerne and its variant okerne mean squirrel and descend from Old English ācweorna. en.wiktionary.org
    • The squirrel sense has a separate origin from the swindle sense. en.wiktionary.org
    • The squirrel sense has a separate origin from the convict sense. en.wiktionary.org
14. 14
    squirrel's nestnounobsoleteNorthern England

    The nest of a squirrel.

    Note

    Northern England's word for the nest, now obsolete, sharing the uncertain origin of the old name for the squirrel itself. In old regional writing only the context shows whether the animal or its home is meant; a present-day writer would simply say a squirrel's nest. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Con is an obsolete Northern English word for a squirrel's nest. en.wiktionary.org
    • The nest sense shares the uncertain origin of con meaning squirrel. en.wiktionary.org