Cant
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cant¹
- /kænt/
Sounds like can't (US), Homophone: Kant (in Anglicized pronunciation) · Rhymes with -ænt
Where it comes from
From Latin cantō, probably via Old Northern French canter (“sing, tell”). Doublet of chant.
noun cants
- An argot, the jargon of a particular class or subgroup. He had the look of a prince, but the cant of a fishmonger.
- A private or secret language used by a religious sect, gang, or other group.
- A language spoken by some Irish Travellers; Shelta.
- Empty, hypocritical talk. He is too well grounded for all your philoſophical Cant to hurt.
- Whining speech, such as that used by beggars.
- A blazon of a coat of arms that makes a pun upon the name (or, less often, some attribute or function) of the bearer, canting arms.
- A call for bidders at a public fair; an auction. […]but numbers of these tenants or their descendants are now offering to sell their leases by cant,
verb cants · canting · canted
- To speak with the jargon of a class or subgroup. The Doctor here, I will proceed with the learned. / VVhen he diſcourſeth of diſſection, / Or any point of Anatomy: that hee tells you, / Of Vena caua, and of vena porta, / The Meſeraicks, and the Meſenterium. / VVhat does he elſe but cant? […] / Does he not cant? VVho here does vnderſtand him?
- To speak in set phrases.
- To talk, beg, or preach in a singsong or whining fashion, especially in a false or empty manner. [I]f he proue not yet / The cunningſt, ranckeſt Rogue that euer Canted, / Ile neuer ſee man againe, […]
- Of a blazon, to make a pun that references the bearer of a coat of arms.
- To sell by auction, or bid at an auction. […]labouring with all their might for preventing the bishops from letting their revenues at a moderate half value[…] at the very instant, when they were every where canting their own land upon short leases, and sacrificing their oldest tenants for a penny an acre advance.
cant²
- /kænt/
Sounds like can't (US), Homophone: Kant (in Anglicized pronunciation) · Rhymes with -ænt
Where it comes from
From Middle English cant (“edge, brink”), from Middle Dutch cant (“point, side, edge”) (Modern Dutch kant (“side, edge”)), ultimately of Celtic or Latin origin. Related to Medieval Latin cantus (“corner, side”), from Latin canthus.
noun cants
- Side, edge, corner, niche. under the cant of a hill
- Slope, the angle at which something is set. Owing to the cant of the vessel, the masts hung far out over the water, and from my perch on the cross-trees I had nothing below me but the surface of the bay.
- A corner (of a building).
- An outer or external angle.
- An inclination from a horizontal or vertical line; a slope or bevel; a tilt.
- A movement or throw that overturns something. It is not only of great service in keeping the boat in her due position on the sea, but also in creating a tendency immediately to recover from any sudden cant, or lurch, from a heavy wave; and it is besides beneficial in diminishing the violence of beating against the sides of the vessel which she
- A sudden thrust, push, kick, or other impulse, producing a bias or change of direction; also, the bias or turn so given. to give a ball a cant
- A segment forming a side piece in the head of a cask.
- A segment of the rim of a wooden cogwheel.
- A piece of wood laid upon the deck of a vessel to support the bulkheads.
- An unfinished log after preliminary cutting.
verb cants · canting · canted
- To set (something) at an angle; to tilt. to cant a cask
- To give a sudden turn or new direction to. to cant round a stick of timber
- To bevel an edge or corner.
- To overturn so that the contents are emptied.
cant³
- /kænt/
Sounds like can't (US), Homophone: Kant (in Anglicized pronunciation) · Rhymes with -ænt
Where it comes from
Unknown, but compare Provençal cantel (“corner, piece”) or Old Northern French cantel (“piece broken off”). The verb is attested from the 15th century, and the noun from the 16th. See cantle, from which cant is possibly back-formed as if it contained the suffix -le.
verb cants · canting · canted
- To divide or parcel out.
noun cants
- A parcel, a division.
cant⁴
- /kænt/
Sounds like can't (US), Homophone: Kant (in Anglicized pronunciation) · Rhymes with -ænt
Where it comes from
From Middle English cant, kaunt, presumably from Middle Low German *kant, perhaps a slang word related to kant (“edge, rim”), from Medieval Latin canthus. Attested from the 13th or 14th century.
adjective kant
- Lively, lusty.
Cant⁵
Where it comes from
As a German surname, variant of Kant.
proper noun
- A surname.
