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HOME | Definition of cant (CANT, Cant)


    Cant \Cant\, a.
    Of the nature of cant; affected; vulgar.
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    To introduce and multiply cant words in the most
    ruinous corruption in any language. --Swift.
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    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48


    Cant \Cant\, v. i.
    1. To speak in a whining voice, or an affected, singsong
    tone.
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    2. To make whining pretensions to goodness; to talk with an
    affectation of religion, philanthropy, etc.; to practice
    hypocrisy; as, a canting fanatic.
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    The rankest rogue that ever canted. --Beau. & Fl.
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    3. To use pretentious language, barbarous jargon, or
    technical terms; to talk with an affectation of learning.
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    The doctor here,
    When he discourseth of dissection,
    Of vena cava and of vena porta,
    The meser[ae]um and the mesentericum,
    What does he else but cant. --B. Jonson
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    That uncouth affected garb of speech, or canting
    language, if I may so call it. --Bp.
    Sanderson.
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    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48


    Cant \Cant\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Canted; p. pr. & vb. n.
    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.
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    2. To give a sudden turn or new direction to; as, to cant
    round a stick of timber; to cant a football.
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    3. To cut off an angle from, as from a square piece of
    timber, or from the head of a bolt.
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    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48


    Cant \Cant\, n. [OF., edge, angle, prof. from L. canthus the
    iron ring round a carriage wheel, a wheel, Gr. ? the corner
    of the eye, the felly of a wheel; cf. W. cant the stake or
    tire of a wheel. Cf. Canthus, Canton, Cantle.]
    1. A corner; angle; niche. [Obs.]
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    The first and principal person in the temple was
    Irene, or Peace; she was placed aloft in a cant.
    --B. Jonson.
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    2. An outer or external angle.
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    3. An inclination from a horizontal or vertical line; a slope
    or bevel; a titl. --Totten.
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    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.
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    5. (Coopering) A segment forming a side piece in the head of
    a cask. --Knight.
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    6. (Mech.) A segment of he rim of a wooden cogwheel.
    --Knight.
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    7. (Naut.) A piece of wood laid upon the deck of a vessel to
    support the bulkheads.
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    Cant frames, Cant timbers (Naut.), timber at the two ends
    of a ship, rising obliquely from the keel.
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    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48


    Cant \Cant\, n. [Prob. from OF. cant, F. chant, singing, in
    allusion to the singing or whining tine of voice used by
    beggars, fr. L. cantus. See Chant.]
    1. An affected, singsong mode of speaking.
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    2. The idioms and peculiarities of speech in any sect, class,
    or occupation. --Goldsmith.
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    The cant of any profession. --Dryden.
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    3. The use of religious phraseology without understanding or
    sincerity; empty, solemn speech, implying what is not
    felt; hypocrisy.
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    They shall hear no cant from me. --F. W.
    Robertson
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    4. Vulgar jargon; slang; the secret language spoker by
    gipsies, thieves, tramps, or beggars.
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    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48


    Cant \Cant\, n. [Prob. from OF. cant, equiv. to L. quantum; cf.
    F. encan, fr. L. in quantum, i.e. "for how much?"]
    A call for bidders at a public sale; an auction. "To sell
    their leases by cant." --Swift.
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    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48


    Cant \Cant\, v. t.
    to sell by auction, or bid a price at a sale by auction.
    [Archaic] --Swift.
    [1913 Webster]

    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48


    Can't \Can't\
    A colloquial contraction for can not.
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    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48


    cant
    n 1: stock phrases that have become nonsense through endless
    repetition [syn: buzzword]
    2: a slope in the turn of a road or track; the outside is
    higher than the inside in order to reduce the effects of
    centrifugal force [syn: bank, camber]
    3: a characteristic language of a particular group (as among
    thieves); "they don't speak our lingo" [syn: jargon, slang,
    lingo, argot, patois, vernacular]
    4: insincere talk about religion or morals [syn: pious
    platitude
    ]
    5: two surfaces meeting at an angle different from 90 degrees
    [syn: bevel, chamfer]
    v : heel over; "The tower is tilting"; "The ceiling is slanting"
    [syn: cant over, tilt, slant, pitch]

    WordNet (r) 2.0


    216 Moby Thesaurus words for "cant":
    Aesopian language, Babel, Greek, L, Pecksniffery, Tartuffery,
    Tartuffism, about ship, affectation, affectedness, alert, angle,
    angularity, animate, animated, apex, argot, ascend, babble,
    back and fill, bank, be hypocritical, bear away, bear off,
    bear to starboard, beat, beat about, bend, bifurcation, bight,
    blandish, box off, break, bring about, bring round, cant round,
    careen, cast, cast about, change course, change the heading,
    chevron, cipher, climb, code, coin, colloquialize, come about,
    corner, crank, crook, crotchet, cryptogram, decline, deflection,
    descend, dialect, diction, dictionary, dip, dogleg, double Dutch,
    double a point, drop, elbow, ell, empty gesture, fall, fall away,
    fall off, false piety, falseness, fetch about, fork, furcation,
    garble, gay, gibberish, gift of tongues, give lip service,
    give mouth honor, glossolalia, go about, go downhill, go uphill,
    gobbledygook, goody-goodiness, grade, gybe, heave round, heel,
    hook, humbug, hypocrisy, hypocriticalness, idiom, inclination,
    incline, inflection, insincerity, jargon, jargonize, jibe,
    jibe all standing, jumble, keel, keen, knee, language, lay down,
    lean, leaning, leaning tower, lexicon, lie along, lingo,
    lip service, list, mealymouthedness, miss stays, mouth, mouthing,
    mumbo jumbo, mummery, noise, nook, oiliness, ostentatious devotion,
    palaver, patois, patter, pecksniffery, pharisaicalness, pharisaism,
    phraseology, pidgin, pietism, pietisticalness, piety, piousness,
    pitch, play the hypocrite, ply, point, pretension, put about,
    put back, quoin, rake, recline, reek of piety, religionism,
    religiosity, render lip service, retreat, rise, round a point,
    sanctimoniousness, sanctimony, scatology, scramble,
    secret language, self-righteousness, sham, sheer, shelve, shift,
    shop, sidle, slang, slant, slew, slope, snivel, snuffle, snuffling,
    soft soap, soft-soap, speak, speech, spirited, sprightly, swag,
    sway, sweet talk, sweet-talk, swerve, swing round, swing the stern,
    taboo language, tack, talk, throw about, tilt, tip, tokenism,
    tower of Pisa, turn, turn back, unction, unctuousness, uprise,
    use language, veer, vernacular, vertex, vivacious, vocabulary,
    vulgar language, wear, wear ship, wind, yaw, zag, zig, zigzag

    Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0


argot, bank, bevel, buzzword, camber, cant over, chamfer, jargon, lingo, patois, pious platitude, pitch, slang, slant, tilt, vernacular


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