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Cant   /kænt/   Listen
noun
Cant  n.  
1.
A corner; angle; niche. (Obs.) "The first and principal person in the temple was Irene, or Peace; she was placed aloft in a cant."
2.
An outer or external angle.
3.
An inclination from a horizontal or vertical line; a slope or bevel; a titl.
4.
A sudden thrust, push, kick, or other impulse, producing a bias or change of direction; also, the bias or turn so give; as, to give a ball a cant.
5.
(Coopering) A segment forming a side piece in the head of a cask.
6.
(Mech.) A segment of he rim of a wooden cogwheel.
7.
(Naut.) A piece of wood laid upon the deck of a vessel to support the bulkheads.
Cant frames, Cant timbers (Naut.), timber at the two ends of a ship, rising obliquely from the keel.


Cant  n.  
1.
An affected, singsong mode of speaking.
2.
The idioms and peculiarities of speech in any sect, class, or occupation. "The cant of any profession."
3.
The use of religious phraseology without understanding or sincerity; empty, solemn speech, implying what is not felt; hypocrisy. "They shall hear no cant from me."
4.
Vulgar jargon; slang; the secret language spoker by gipsies, thieves, tramps, or beggars.


Cant  n.  A call for bidders at a public sale; an auction. "To sell their leases by cant."


adjective
Cant  adj.  Of the nature of cant; affected; vulgar. "To introduce and multiply cant words in the most ruinous corruption in any language."


verb
Cant  v. t.  (past & past part. canted; pres. part. canting)  
1.
To incline; to set at an angle; to tilt over; to tip upon the edge; as, to cant a cask; to cant a ship.
2.
To give a sudden turn or new direction to; as, to cant round a stick of timber; to cant a football.
3.
To cut off an angle from, as from a square piece of timber, or from the head of a bolt.


Cant  v. t.  To sell by auction, or bid a price at a sale by auction. (Archaic)


Cant  v. i.  
1.
To speak in a whining voice, or an affected, singsong tone.
2.
To make whining pretensions to goodness; to talk with an affectation of religion, philanthropy, etc.; to practice hypocrisy; as, a canting fanatic. "The rankest rogue that ever canted."
3.
To use pretentious language, barbarous jargon, or technical terms; to talk with an affectation of learning. "The doctor here, When he discourseth of dissection, Of vena cava and of vena porta, The meseraeum and the mesentericum, What does he else but cant." "That uncouth affected garb of speech, or canting language, if I may so call it."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Cant" Quotes from Famous Books



... Fish may be free from taint in this regard; but many historians of to-day are, I fear, imbued with that most dangerous tincture of historical cant which lays it down as a maxim that contemporary ...
— Shandygaff • Christopher Morley
... current operates the sluggish press-magnet, causing its armature to be attracted, thus lifting the platen and its projecting arm. As the arm lifts upward, the pin moves along the under side of the lower arm of the rocking-lever, thus causing it to cant and shift the type-wheels to the right or left, as desired. The principles of operation of this apparatus have been confined to a very brief and general description, but it is believed to be sufficient for the scope ...
— Edison, His Life and Inventions • Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin
... other animal or vegetable beings, either in their mature or their embryon state. Unless the fruits, which surround the seeds of some vegetables, or the honey stolen from them by the bee, may be said to be an exception to this assertion. See Botanic Garden, P. I. Cant. I. l. 278. Note. Hence, from the necessity of our nature, we may be supposed to have a right to kill those creatures, which we want to eat, or which want to eat us. But to destroy even insects wantonly shews an unreflecting ...
— Zoonomia, Vol. II - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin
... her hare, I meen my dollys hare I gess she thort it waz 1 of her kittns. Tabbys got tu kittns. They has not got thay ize open yet, so I tryd tu pick um opn, but arnt Prudence sed that wood be cruil. If thay cant git thay ize opn thayselfs why aint I good tu pick um ...
— Randy and Her Friends • Amy Brooks
... hands, Religion plead her stronger bands; Bid parents, children, wife, and friends, If they come 'thwart his private ends— Unmoved he hears the general call, And bravely tramples on them all. Who will, for him, may cant and whine, And let weak Conscience with her line Chalk out their ways; such starving rules Are only fit for coward fools; 340 Fellows who credit what priests tell, And tremble at the thoughts of Hell; His spirit dares contend with Grace, And meets Damnation face to face. Such ...
— Poetical Works • Charles Churchill


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