cant

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Angular deviation from a vertical or horizontal plane or surface; an inclination or slope.
2. n. A slanted or oblique surface.
3. n. A thrust or motion that tilts something.
4. n. The tilt caused by such a thrust or motion.
5. n. An outer corner, as of a building.
6. v. To set at an oblique angle; tilt.
7. v. To give a slanting edge to; bevel.
8. v. To change the direction of suddenly.
9. v. To lean to one side; slant.
10. v. To take an oblique direction or course; swing around, as a ship.
11. n. Monotonous talk filled with platitudes.
12. n. Hypocritically pious language.
13. n. The special vocabulary peculiar to the members of an underworld group; argot.
14. n. See Shelta.
15. n. Whining speech, such as that used by beggars.
16. n. The special terminology understood among the members of a profession, discipline, or class but obscure to the general population; jargon. See Synonyms at dialect.
17. v. To speak tediously or sententiously; moralize.
18. v. To speak in argot or jargon.
19. v. To speak in a whining, pleading tone.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A corner; an angle; a niche.
2. n. The corner of a field.
3. n. An external or salient angle: as, a six-canted bolt, that is, one of six cants, or of which the head has six angles.
4. n. One of the segments forming a side piece in the head of a cask.
5. n. A ship's timber, near the bow or stern, lying obliquely to the line of the keel.
6. n. A piece of wood which supports the bulkheads on a vessel's deck.
7. n. A log that has received two side cuts in a sawmill and is ready for the next cut.
8. n. An inclination from a horizontal line; a sloping, slanting, or tilted position.
9. n. A toss, thrust, or push with a sudden jerk: as, to give a ball a cant.
10. n. In whale-fishing, a cut in a whale between the neck and fins.
11. To put or set at an angle; tilt or move from a horizontal line: as, to cant or cant up a plank; to cant over a pail or cask.
12. Nautical, to turn (something) so that it is no longer fair and square; give (a ship) an inclination to one side, as in preparing her to be careened.
13. To set upon edge, as a stone.
14. To throw with a sudden jerk; toss: as, to cant a ball.
15. To cut off an angle of, as of a square piece of timber.
16. To tilt or incline; have a slant.
17. To speak with a whining voice or in an affected or assumed tone; assume a particular tone and manner of speaking for the purpose of exciting compassion, as in begging; hence, to beg.
18. To make pharisaical, hypocritical, or whining pretensions to goodness; affect piety without sincerity; sham holiness.
19. To talk in a, certain special jargon; use the words and phraseology peculiar to a particular sect, party, profession, and the like.
20. To use as a conventional phraseology or jargon.
21. n. A whining or singing manner of speech; specifically, the whining speech of beggars, as in asking alms.
22. n. The language or jargon spoken by gipsies, thieves, professional beggars, or the like, and containing many words different from ordinary English; a kind of slang or argot.
23. n. The words and phrases peculiar to or characteristic of a sect, party, or profession; the dialect of a class, sect, or set of people: used in an unfavorable sense.
24. n. A pretentious or insincere assumption, in speech, of a religious character; an ostentatious or insincere use of solemn or religious phraseology.
25. n. Hence Any insincerity or conventionality in speech, especially insincere assumption or conventional pretense of enthusiasm for high thoughts or aims.
26. n. Synonyms and Cant, Slang, Colloquialism. Cant belongs to a class; slang to no one class, except where it is specified: as, college slang; parliamentary slang. Slang is generally over-vivid in metaphor and threadbare from use, and is often vulgar or ungrammatical; cant may be correct, but unintelligible to those outside of the class concerned. Cant has also the meaning of insincere or conventional use of religious or other set phrases, as above. A colloquialism is simply an expression that belongs to common conversation, but Is considered too homely for refined speech or for writing.
27. Of the nature of cant or jargon.
28. n. Something given in charity.
29. n. An auction; sale by auction. Grose.
30. To sell by auction.
31. To enhance or increase, as by competitive bidding at an auction.
32. Bold; strong; hearty; lusty. Now usually canty (which see).
33. To recover or mend; grow strong.
34. n. An oblique line which cuts off a corner of a rectangle; an oblique side of a polygon; an oblique plane which cuts off the corner of a cuboid; an oblique face of a crystal; a slanting face of a bank.
35. n. A sudden movement, as on board ship, resulting in a tilting up.
36. n. One of the pieces which form the ends of the buckets on a water-wheel.
37. n. A canting person.
38. n. A portion, share, or division; a parcel or bundle: as, a cant of hay; a cant of growing grain assigned to a reaper.
39. n. In civil law, a method of partitioning property the title to which is vested in two or more parties in common.
40. n. An abbreviation of Canticles.

Wiktionary

1. n. countable An argot, the jargon of a particular class or subgroup.
2. n. countable, uncountable A private or secret language used by a religious sect, gang, or other group.
3. n. Shelta.
4. n. uncountable, pejorative Empty, hypocritical talk.
5. n. uncountable Whining speech, such as that used by beggars.
6. n. countable, heraldry A blazon of a coat of arms that makes a pun upon the name of the bearer, canting arms.
7. v. intransitive To speak with the jargon of a class or subgroup.
8. v. intransitive To speak in set phrases.
9. v. intransitive To preach in a singsong fashion, especially in a false or empty manner.
10. v. intransitive, heraldry Of a blazon, to make a pun that references the bearer of a coat of arms.
11. v. obsolete To sell by auction, or bid at an auction.
12. n. obsolete corner, niche
13. n. slope, the angle at which something is set.
14. n. A movement or throw that overturns something.
15. v. transitive To set (something) at an angle.
16. v. transitive To bevel an edge or corner.
17. v. transitive To overturn so that the contents are emptied.
18. v. transitive To divide or parcel out.
19. adj. UK, dialect lively, lusty.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. obsolete A corner; angle; niche.
2. n. An outer or external angle.
3. n. An inclination from a horizontal or vertical line; a slope or bevel; a titl.
4. n. A sudden thrust, push, kick, or other impulse, producing a bias or change of direction; also, the bias or turn so give.
5. n. (Coopering) A segment forming a side piece in the head of a cask.
6. n. (Mech.) A segment of he rim of a wooden cogwheel.
7. n. (Naut.) A piece of wood laid upon the deck of a vessel to support the bulkheads.
8. v. To incline; to set at an angle; to tilt over; to tip upon the edge.
9. v. To give a sudden turn or new direction to.
10. v. To cut off an angle from, as from a square piece of timber, or from the head of a bolt.
11. n. An affected, singsong mode of speaking.
12. n. The idioms and peculiarities of speech in any sect, class, or occupation.
13. n. The use of religious phraseology without understanding or sincerity; empty, solemn speech, implying what is not felt; hypocrisy.
14. n. Vulgar jargon; slang; the secret language spoker by gipsies, thieves, tramps, or beggars.
15. adj. Of the nature of cant; affected; vulgar.
16. v. To speak in a whining voice, or an affected, singsong tone.
17. v. To make whining pretensions to goodness; to talk with an affectation of religion, philanthropy, etc.; to practice hypocrisy.
18. v. To use pretentious language, barbarous jargon, or technical terms; to talk with an affectation of learning.
19. n. A call for bidders at a public sale; an auction.
20. v. Archaic to sell by auction, or bid a price at a sale by auction.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. two surfaces meeting at an angle different from 90 degrees
2. n. stock phrases that have become nonsense through endless repetition
3. n. 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
4. n. insincere talk about religion or morals
5. n. a characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves)
6. v. heel over