Cant

Definition of Cant

The first and principal person in the temple was Irene, or Peace; she was placed aloft in a cant.

- B. Jonson.

An inclination from a horizontal or vertical line; a slope or bevel; a titl.

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.

(Coopering) A segment forming a side piece in the head of a cask.

(Mech.) A segment of he rim of a wooden cogwheel.

(Naut.) A piece of wood laid upon the deck of a vessel to support the bulkheads.

Cant frames
(Naut.) timber at the two ends of a ship, rising obliquely from the keel.

v. t.

To incline; to set at an angle; to tilt over; to tip upon the edge; as, to cant a cask; to cant a ship.

[imp. & p. p. Canted; p. pr. & vb. n. Canting.]

To give a sudden turn or new direction to; as, to cant round a stick of timber; to cant a football.

To cut off an angle from, as from a square piece of timber, or from the head of a bolt.

An affected, singsong mode of speaking.

The idioms and peculiarities of speech in any sect, class, or occupation.

The cant of any profession.

- Dryden.

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.

- F. W. Robertson

Vulgar jargon; slang; the secret language spoker by gipsies, thieves, tramps, or beggars.

Of the nature of cant; affected; vulgar.

To introduce and multiply cant words in the most ruinous corruption in any language.

- Swift.

v. i.

To speak in a whining voice, or an affected, singsong tone.

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.

- Beau. & Fl.

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 meseræum and the mesentericum,
What does he else but cant.

- B. Jonson

That uncouth affected garb of speech, or canting language, if I may so call it.

- Bp. Sanderson.

A call for bidders at a public sale; an auction.

v. t.

to sell by auction, or bid a price at a sale by auction.

Related Words

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, 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, 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

Browse

Canonical punishments
Canonical sins
Canonically
Canonicalness
Canonicals
Canonicate
Canonicity
Canonist
Canonistic
Canonization
Canonize
Canonry
Canonship
canopic jar
canopied
Canopus
Canopy
Canorous
Canorousness
Canstick
-Cant-
Cant frames
Cant hook
Cantab
Cantabile
Cantabrian
Cantabrigian
Cantalever
Cantalever bridge
Cantaloupe
Cantankerous
Cantar
Cantata
Cantation
Cantatory
Cantatrice
Canted
Canted column
Canteen
Cantel
Canter

# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z