cant

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“
They to whom what they call the cant of the Puritan is an offence, themselves have established and practise a distinct anti-Puritan cant with which we are all familiar.

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Definitions (72)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (19)

  1. noun Angular deviation from a vertical or horizontal plane or surface; an inclination or slope.
  2. noun A slanted or oblique surface.
  3. noun A thrust or motion that tilts something.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (40)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (7)

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Examples (50)

  • For a man with whom intellect is the ruling or exclusive faculty, whose sympathies, loves, hatreds, are comparatively coarse and dull, it may be easy to avoid this half-wilful entertainment of error, and this cant which is the consequence and sign of it. —  The Project Gutenberg eBook of Life of Friedrich Schiller, by Thomas Carlyle
  • I like a game with a good story and that require stealth and that give me a chance to look around and assess the situation (I told you I'm old -- cant think and respond too quickly) —  Yahoo! Answers: Latest Questions
  • RIH EMPLOYEE --- cant do my job because of DRUGS in his state! wrote ... —  WLNE - News
  • My son was born at 25 weeks and is totally healthy, if you cant ***** figure out that you dont want you kid before the 1 trimester is over, YOU should be killed and the baby saved. —  Original Signal - Transmitting Digg
  • Both are good at what they do. pc gaming isnt dead, not yet, but it is sadly dying. muramasa: who cares about anyone "you hang about with"? you cant **** ing judge an entire market based on your locale. —  Computer And Video Games
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

well ·  wont ·  hypocrisy ·  ll ·  affectation ·  scarce ·  kin ·  dont ·  jargon ·  ter ·  nonsense ·  vanity
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (11)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English, side, from Old North French, from Vulgar Latin *cantus, corner, from Latin canthus, rim of wheel, tire, of Celtic origin.
  2. Anglo-Norman cant, song, singing, from canter, to sing, from Latin cantāre; see kan- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (9)

  1. = Dutch kant, border, edge, side, brink, margin, corner, = O'Friesic kant (in comp.), side, = Middle Low German kant, kante, Low German kante (later G. kante = modern Icelandic kantr = Danish Swedish kant), border, edge, margin, prob. from Old French cant, corner, angle, = Spanish Portuguese Italian canto, side, edge, corner, angle, from Middle Latin cantus, side, corner. Of uncertain and prob. various origin: (1) in part, like W. cant, the rim of a circle, from Latin canthus, Middle Latin cantus, contus, the tire of a wheel (in Middle Latin also explained as the nave or spokes of a wheel, in L. also poetical a wheel); cf. Greek κανθός, the felly of a wheel (a late word, perhaps due to the L., which was, according to Quintilian, a barbarous Hispanian or African word); (2) cf. Greek κανθός, the corner of the eye (see canthus); (3) cf. Old Bulgarian katŭ = Bulgarian kŭt = Sloven. kôt = Servian kut = Bohemian kout = Polish kant = Russian kutŭ = Lettish kante, a corner. In some senses the noun is from the verb. Hence, cantle, canton.
  2. = Dutch kanten, cut off an angle, square, = German kanten, cant, tilt, = Swedish kanta, bevel, = Low German freq. kanteln, kantern, turn over, tilt, af-kanteln, cut off an angle, = Danish kæntre, upset, capsize, cant; from the noun.
  3. First at the end of the 16th century; usually referred to L. cantare (later ult. English chant, q. v.), sing (in form a freq. of canere, past participle cantus, sing, from a root represented in English by the noun hen, q. v.), in ecclesiastical use (Middle Latin) also perform mass or divine service, and, as a noun, an anniversary service for the dead, alms, especially when given as an anniversary observance (see cant, n. and a.). The word cant may thus have become associated with beggars; but there may have been also an allusion to a perfunctory performance of divine service, and hence a hypocritical use of religious phrases.
  4. from cant, v.
  5. Said to be vagabonds' slang. Cf. Middle Latin cantare, plural cantaria, alms: see cant, v.
  6. Short for Old French encant, French encan = Provencal enquant, encant = Old Spanish encante = Italian incanto (Middle Latin incantum, incantus, inquantus), an auction, orig. a call for bids at an auction, from Latin in quantum, for how much? See quantum, quantity, etc.
  7. from cant, n. Cf. equivalent Middle Latin incantare, inquantare.
  8. English dial. and Scots, also canty; from Middle English cant, kant, kaunt, bold, brave; origin obscure.
  9. English dial., from cant, a.
 

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/kænt/
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