'Cant' definitions:
Definition of 'cant'
From: WordNet
noun
Stock phrases that have become nonsense through endless repetition [syn: buzzword, cant]
noun
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, cant, camber]
noun
A characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves); "they don't speak our lingo" [syn: slang, cant, jargon, lingo, argot, patois, vernacular]
noun
Insincere talk about religion or morals [syn: cant, pious platitude]
noun
verb
Definition of 'Cant'
From: GCIDE
- 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. [1913 Webster]
- 2. To give a sudden turn or new direction to; as, to cant round a stick of timber; to cant a football. [1913 Webster]
- 3. To cut off an angle from, as from a square piece of timber, or from the head of a bolt. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'Cant'
From: GCIDE
- 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.] [1913 Webster]
- The first and principal person in the temple was Irene, or Peace; she was placed aloft in a cant. --B. Jonson. [1913 Webster]
- 2. An outer or external angle. [1913 Webster]
- 3. An inclination from a horizontal or vertical line; a slope or bevel; a titl. --Totten. [1913 Webster]
- 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. [1913 Webster]
- 5. (Coopering) A segment forming a side piece in the head of a cask. --Knight. [1913 Webster]
- 6. (Mech.) A segment of he rim of a wooden cogwheel. --Knight. [1913 Webster]
- 7. (Naut.) A piece of wood laid upon the deck of a vessel to support the bulkheads. [1913 Webster]
- Cant frames, Cant timbers (Naut.), timber at the two ends of a ship, rising obliquely from the keel. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'Cant'
From: GCIDE
- 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. [1913 Webster]
- 2. The idioms and peculiarities of speech in any sect, class, or occupation. --Goldsmith. [1913 Webster]
- The cant of any profession. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
- 3. The use of religious phraseology without understanding or sincerity; empty, solemn speech, implying what is not felt; hypocrisy. [1913 Webster]
- They shall hear no cant from me. --F. W. Robertson [1913 Webster]
- 4. Vulgar jargon; slang; the secret language spoker by gipsies, thieves, tramps, or beggars. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'Cant'
From: GCIDE
- 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. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'Cant'
From: GCIDE
- Cant \Cant\, v. t. to sell by auction, or bid a price at a sale by auction. [Archaic] --Swift. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'Cant'
From: GCIDE
- Cant \Cant\, a. Of the nature of cant; affected; vulgar. [1913 Webster]
- To introduce and multiply cant words in the most ruinous corruption in any language. --Swift. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'Cant'
From: GCIDE
- Cant \Cant\, v. i.
- 1. To speak in a whining voice, or an affected, singsong tone. [1913 Webster]
- 2. To make whining pretensions to goodness; to talk with an affectation of religion, philanthropy, etc.; to practice hypocrisy; as, a canting fanatic. [1913 Webster]
- The rankest rogue that ever canted. --Beau. & Fl. [1913 Webster]
- 3. To use pretentious language, barbarous jargon, or technical terms; to talk with an affectation of learning. [1913 Webster]
- 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 [1913 Webster]
- That uncouth affected garb of speech, or canting language, if I may so call it. --Bp. Sanderson. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'cant'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- about ship,
- Aesopian language,
- affectation,
- affectedness,
- alert,
- angle,
- angularity,
- animate,
- animated,
- apex,
- argot,
- ascend,
- babble,
- Babel,
- 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 a point,
- double Dutch,
- 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,
- Greek,
- gybe,
- heave round,
- heel,
- hook,
- humbug,
- hypocrisy,
- hypocriticalness,
- idiom,
- inclination,
- incline,
- inflection,
- insincerity,
- jargon,
- jargonize,
- jibe,
- jibe all standing,
- jumble,
- keel,
- keen,
- knee,
- L,
- 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,
- patois,
- patter,
- Pecksniffery,
- 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,
- Tartuffery,
- Tartuffism,
- 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