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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



... another letter for me to the papers. [He makes a wry face]. Yes: I know you don't like it; but it must be done. The starvation this winter is beating us: everybody is unemployed. The General says we must close this shelter if we cant get more money. I force the collections at the meetings until I am ...
— Major Barbara • George Bernard Shaw

... irregularities of conduct which are smiled at, and taken for granted, in a man made after the normal, comely fashion, become a scandal in the case of a poor, unhappy devil like me, at which good people hold up their hands in horror. Faugh!—I tell you I'm sick of such cowardly cant. A pretty example the Almighty's set me of justice and mercy! Handsome encouragement He has given me to be virtuous and sober! Much I have for which to praise His holy name! Arbitrarily, without excuse, or faintest show of antecedent ...
— The History of Sir Richard Calmady - A Romance • Lucas Malet

... Theodore Lane's social satires may be mentioned Scientific Pursuits, or Hobbyhorse Races to the Temple of Fame, four folio plates; The Parson's Clerk (a comic song), four illustrations in ridicule of cant and hypocrisy; Legal Illustrations (seventy humorous applications of law terms); The Masquerade at the Argyll Rooms (a large plate full of vigour, life, and character); New Year's Morning: the Old One ...
— English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century. - How they Illustrated and Interpreted their Times. • Graham Everitt

... Duncan, John Hume, Robert Knox, William Jameson, Robert Murray, Henry Guthrie, James Hamilton, in Dumfreis, Bernard Sanderson, John Levingstoun, James Bonar, Evan Camron, David Dickson, Robort Bailzie, James Cuninghame, George Youngh, Andrew Affleck, David Lindsay, Andrew Cant, William Douglas, Murdo Mackenzie, Coline Mackenzie, John Monroe, Walter Stuart Ministers; Archbald Marquesse of Argyle, William Earle Marshall, John Earle of Sutherland, Alexander Earle of Eglingtoun, John Earle of Cassils, ...
— The Acts Of The General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland

... different and shameless purposes did he now prostitute it! That which had been in his better days a principle of just pride, a spur to industry, an impulse to honor, and a safeguard to integrity, had now become the catchword of a mendicant—the cant or slang, as it were, of an impostor. He was not ashamed to beg in its name—to ask for whiskey in its name—and to sink, in its name, ...
— Phelim O'toole's Courtship and Other Stories • William Carleton


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