Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English - Cite This Source - Share This

Main Entry:	cant1
Part of Speech:	n
Definition:	the characteristic or secret language of a particular group
Etymology:	Latin cantus 'song, chant'

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Main Entry:	cant1
Part of Speech:	v
Definition:	to bevel off; to put into an oblique position
Etymology:	Dutch, German kanten
Usage:	transitive

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Main Entry:	cant2
Part of Speech:	n
Definition:	phrases that have been endlessly repeated and have lost impact and meaning; a type of phraseology, such as affected and insincere religious speech
Etymology:	Latin cantus 'song, chant'

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Main Entry:	cant2
Part of Speech:	v
Definition:	to tilt, incline, or turn upside-down
Etymology:	Dutch, German kanten
Usage:	transitive

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Main Entry:	cant3
Part of Speech:	n
Definition:	whiny speech
Etymology:	Latin cantus 'song, chant'

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Main Entry:	cant3
Part of Speech:	v
Definition:	to speak in a jargon or secret language; to use a phraseology particular to a group
Etymology:	Latin cantus 'song, chant'
Usage:	transitive

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Main Entry:	cant4
Part of Speech:	n
Definition:	vulgar slang
Etymology:	Latin cantus 'song, chant'

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Main Entry:	cant4
Part of Speech:	v
Definition:	to speak whiningly or affectedly
Etymology:	Latin cantus 'song, chant'
Usage:	transitive

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Main Entry:	cant5
Part of Speech:	n
Definition:	a slope in the turn of a road or track where the outside is higher; tilt
Etymology:	Celtic

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Main Entry:	cant5
Part of Speech:	v
Definition:	to dispose of by auction
Etymology:	Latin accantare 'to put up to auction'
Usage:	transitive

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Main Entry:	cant6
Part of Speech:	n
Definition:	a slanting or oblique line, edge, or surface
Etymology:	Celtic

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Main Entry:	cant7
Part of Speech:	n
Definition:	an auction
Etymology:	Latin accantare 'to put up to auction'

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

cant 1       (kānt)  Pronunciation Key  n.   Angular deviation from a vertical or horizontal plane or surface; an inclination or slope. A slanted or oblique surface. A thrust or motion that tilts something. The tilt caused by such a thrust or motion. An outer corner, as of a building. v.   cant·ed, cant·ing, cants v.   tr. To set at an oblique angle; tilt. To give a slanting edge to; bevel. To change the direction of suddenly. v.   intr. To lean to one side; slant. To take an oblique direction or course; swing around, as a ship. [Middle English, side, from Old North French, from Vulgar Latin *cantus, corner, from Latin canthus, rim of wheel, tire, of Celtic origin.]

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cant 2       (kānt)  Pronunciation Key  n.   Monotonous talk filled with platitudes. Hypocritically pious language. The special vocabulary peculiar to the members of an underworld group; argot. Cant See Shelta. Whining speech, such as that used by beggars. The special terminology understood among the members of a profession, discipline, or class but obscure to the general population; jargon. See Synonyms at dialect. intr.v.   cant·ed, cant·ing, cants To speak tediously or sententiously; moralize. To speak in argot or jargon. To speak in a whining, pleading tone. [Anglo-Norman cant, song, singing, from canter, to sing, from Latin cantāre; see kan- in Indo-European roots.] cant'ing·ly adv., cant'ing·ness n.

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Shel·ta       (shěl'tə)  Pronunciation Key  n.   A secret jargon used by traditionally itinerant people in Great Britain and Ireland, based on systematic inversion or alteration of the initial consonants of Gaelic words. Also called Cant, Gammon. [From Shelta Sheldrū, perhaps alteration of Irish Gaelic béarla, language, English, from Old Irish bélrae, language, from bél, mouth.]

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cant  (1)

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cant  (2)

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

cant
noun
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]
3.	a characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves); "they don't speak our lingo" [syn: slang]
4.	insincere talk about religion or morals
5.	two surfaces meeting at an angle different from 90 degrees [syn: bevel]
verb
1.	heel over; "The tower is tilting"; "The ceiling is slanting"

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Cant

Ac"cent`\, n. [F. accent, L. accentus; ad + cantus a singing, canere to sing. See Cant.]

1. A superior force of voice or of articulative effort upon some particular syllable of a word or a phrase, distinguishing it from the others.

Note: Many English words have two accents, the primary and the secondary; the primary being uttered with a greater stress of voice than the secondary; as in as'pira"tion, where the chief stress is on the third syllable, and a slighter stress on the first. Some words, as an'tiap'o-plec"tic, in-com'pre-hen'si-bil"i-ty, have two secondary accents. See Guide to Pron., [th][th] 30-46.

2. A mark or character used in writing, and serving to regulate the pronunciation; esp.: (a) a mark to indicate the nature and place of the spoken accent; (b) a mark to indicate the quality of sound of the vowel marked; as, the French accents.

Note: In the ancient Greek the acute accent (') meant a raised tone or pitch, the grave (`), the level tone or simply the negation of accent, the circumflex ( ~ or ^) a tone raised and then depressed. In works on elocution, the first is often used to denote the rising inflection of the voice; the second, the falling inflection; and the third (^), the compound or waving inflection. In dictionaries, spelling books, and the like, the acute accent is used to designate the syllable which receives the chief stress of voice.

3. Modulation of the voice in speaking; manner of speaking or pronouncing; peculiar or characteristic modification of the voice; tone; as, a foreign accent; a French or a German accent. "Beguiled you in a plain accent." --Shak. "A perfect accent." --Thackeray.

The tender accent of a woman's cry. --Prior.

4. A word; a significant tone; (pl.) expressions in general; speech.

Winds! on your wings to Heaven her accents bear, Such words as Heaven alone is fit to hear. --Dryden.

5. (Pros.) Stress laid on certain syllables of a verse.

6. (Mus.) (a) A regularly recurring stress upon the tone to mark the beginning, and, more feebly, the third part of the measure. (b) A special emphasis of a tone, even in the weaker part of the measure. (c) The rhythmical accent, which marks phrases and sections of a period. (d) The expressive emphasis and shading of a passage. --J. S. Dwight.

7. (Math.) (a) A mark placed at the right hand of a letter, and a little above it, to distinguish magnitudes of a similar kind expressed by the same letter, but differing in value, as y', y[sec]. (b) (Trigon.) A mark at the right hand of a number, indicating minutes of a degree, seconds, etc.; as, 12'27[sec], i. e., twelve minutes twenty seven seconds. (c) (Engin.) A mark used to denote feet and inches; as, 6' 10[sec] is six feet ten inches.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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.]

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

2. An outer or external angle.

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

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. --Knight.

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

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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

The cant of any profession. --Dryden.

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. --F. W. Robertson

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

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Cant

Cant\, a. Of the nature of cant; affected; vulgar.

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

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Cant

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. --Beau. & Fl.

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 meser[ae]um 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.

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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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CANT

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