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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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