▪ I. cant, n.1
(kænt)
Also 5–8 kant.
[Found c 1400; rare before 1600. Words identical in form and corresponding in sense are found in many languages, Teutonic, Slavonic, Romanic, Celtic. Cf. Du. kant, MDu. cant, border, side, brink, edge, corner, MLG. kant (masc.) point, creek, border, also kante (fem.) side, edge, whence mod.G. kante edge, corner, border, brim, margin; also Du. and Ger. kante point-lace. (There is no trace of the word in the older stages of Teutonic.) Also OF. cant and mod.Norman cant, Walloon can side, Sp., Pg., It. canto edge, corner, side, med.L. cantus corner, side; with which some compare L. canthus, Gr. κανθός corner of the eye, and L. canthus tire (? felloe) of a wheel, according to Quintilian a ‘barbarous’ word. The Welsh cant edge of the circle, Breton ka{nmac}t circle, circumference, which were thought by Diez to represent an original Celtic word, are held by Diefenbach and Thurneysen not to be native; so that at present we cannot go beyond the Romanic canto, and its possible identity with L. canthus. The Teutonic words were probably from Romanic. It is not clear whether the Eng. word was adopted from OF. or from LG., or, in different senses, from both.]
I. Original n. senses.
† 1. (probably) Edge, border, brink. Obs.
| c 1375 ? Barbour St. Lucas 69, 70 Quhene he had dry⁓wyne wel oure Þe kanttis of sewynty ȝeris & foure. c 1400 Melayne 1495 Under the cante of a hille Oure Britons beldis & bydis stille. |
† 2. A nook, corner in a building; a niche. Obs.
| [1481–90 Howard Househ. Bks. (1841) 400 Item, for ij. panchons at the garden gate, with kant ther above viijd.] 1603 B. Jonson Jas. I's Entert. Wks. (1838) 530/1 Irene, or Peace; she was placed aloft in a cant, her attire white, semined with stars. 1604 Dekker King's Entert. 297 Directly under her in a Cant by her selfe, Fame stood upright. 1605 Verstegan Dec. Intell. v. 150 A nooke or corner being in our ancient language called a kant or cantell. 1624 Webster Mon. Honour. Wks. (1857) 369 In several cants beneath sits, first Magistracy..next Liberality. |
† 3. a. A corner or angle of a polygon. Obs.
| 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Pent, La figure hexagone à six pents, hauing six Cants. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. xiii. §42 A Tower or Steeple of six Cants or six square..Some term it an Hexagon or Octagon Tower, that is six or eight cornered; but Master Masons generally term it six or eight Cants or Corners. 1876 Gwilt Archit. Gloss., Cant, an external angle or quoin of a building. |
† b. ? A corner piece; a triangular piece. Obs.
| 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 118/2 Garden, part to be divided into Beds and them again to be cast into Ovals, Squares, Cants, Frets, Borders or Knots. |
4. a. One of the side-pieces in the head of a cask; also cant-piece. (So in Welsh). Cf. cantle-piece (cantle n. 8).
| 1611 Cotgr., Panneau de doile, a cant pane or peece. 1848 J. A. Carlyle tr. Dante's Inferno xxviii. 22 Even a cask, through loss of middle-piece or cant [per mezzul perdere o lulla] yawns not so wide as one I saw. |
b. One segment of the rim of a wooden cog-wheel.
| a 1877 in Knight Dict. Mech. |
5. The oblique line or surface which cants or cuts off the corner of a square or cube; an oblique face of a polygon, a crystal, etc.; an inclined or slanting face of a bank, or the like.
| 1840 Fosbroke Encycl. Antiq. 148 Cants (parts which have inclined faces). 1850 Gloss. Terms in Archit. (ed. 5) 107 Cant, a term in common use among carpenters to express the cutting off the angle of a square. 1874 Knight Mech. Dict., Cant, an angle, a bevel, a chamfer, a slope, an arris, a hip, a ridge. 1875 Brande & Cox Dict. Science I. 367 Cant, a term used in Architecture to express the sides of a polygon turned from the spectator. 1877 E. Peacock N.-W. Linc. Gloss., Cant, part of a buttress wall or other building which is sloped off. 1880 Standard 20 May 13 Along the ‘cant’ of the ice the sealer coasts. |
6. A squared log. U.S. Cf. canter n.1 2.
| 1877 Lumberman's Gaz. 24 May, A cant or square-edged timber. 1879 Ibid. 5 Nov., The cheapest and most effective means yet devised for holding the cant in place. |
7. Naut. A piece of wood laid upon the deck of a vessel to support the bulkheads, etc. Cf. cant-piece, etc. in 12.
| 1794 Rigging & Seamanship II. 286 Fir cants nailed on the limber-strakes. 1865 Reader 12 Aug., Washing arrangements. Suitable places on board ship are to be set apart for the purpose, fitted with cants, to prevent the escape of water, and screens so arranged as to roll up when not in use. |
II. from cant v.
8. A toss, pitch, or throw, which overturns, casts down, etc.
| 1736 J. Lewis Hist. Thanet Gloss., Cant..likewise signifies a cast or throw; ‘I gave him a cant’. 1755 Mem. Capt. P. Drake II. xiv. 244 To give me such a cant, as I never had before nor since, which was the whole Length of the Coffee-room; he pitched me on my Head and Shoulders, under a large Table, at the further End. |
9. A sudden movement which tends to, or results in, tilting up or turning over.
| 1806 A. Duncan Nelson 308 The carronade..took a cant from a roll of the ship. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xii. viii, Fortune's wheel made suddenly a great cant. |
10. a. A slope, a slanting or tilted position; a deflection from the perpendicular or horizontal line.
| 1847 Infantry Man. (1854) 20 Giving the piece a cant with the forefingers. 1873 Mrs. Whitney Other Girls xxxiv, The seat sloped with the sharp cant of the half-overturned vehicle. 1876 Davis Polaris Exp. x. 245 A large tongue of ice below the water was forced under the bows of the vessel, raising her..and with the help of the wind giving her a cant. |
b. An inclination.
| 1881 Daily Tel. 28 Jan., The helm had been lashed with a small cant to leeward. |
11. Whale-fishing. (See quot.)
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Cant, a cut made in a whale between the neck and the fins, to which the cant purchase is made fast, for turning the animal round in the operation of flensing. |
III. Attributively and in combination.
12. Combs. with the n. (or stem of the vb.) with the general sense of ‘having canted corners or sides, on the slant, sloping, in a position diverging from the perpendicular or straight line’, as in cant-buttress, cant-floor, cant-frame, cant-piece, cant-riband; cant-board, a sloping board; in Carriage building, a board serving to show the plan of the side of a carriage; cant-body, Naut. (see quot.); † cant-ceiling, a ceiling which slants to meet the wall, as in attics, etc., apparently now corrupted into camp-ceiling; cant-file, a file with cutting faces at an obtuse angle to each other; cant-line (see quots.); cant-moulding, -riband, -timber, -window (see quots.); cant-rail, a timber or other stiffening member which supports the roof of a railway carriage either at an angle or longitudinally; also transf.
| 1759 Smeaton in Phil. Trans. LI. 103 A *kant-board, for throwing the water more directly down the opening..into the lower cistern. 1879 Carriage-building in Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 131 The cant-board which shows the sidecant. Ibid. The diagram showing the cant-board. |
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Cant-body, an imaginary figure of that part of a ship's body which forms the shape forward and aft, and whose planes make obtuse angles with the midship line of the ship. 1879 W. H. White Ship-build. in Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 190/1 In the cant-bodies the plan followed is almost identical with that sketched. |
| 1663 in Cosin Corr. (Surtees) II. 367 Two *cant buttresses of hewen aishler neately jointed. |
| 1688 R. Holme Armoury III. xiii. §88 He beareth..the like Tower with an Eve, or *Cant seileing Roofe. |
| a 1877 Knight Dict. Mech., *Cant-file, a file having the shape of an obtuse-angled triangle in its transverse section; used in filing the inner angles of spanners and wrenches for bolts with hexagonal and octagonal heads. |
| c 1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 119 One or two *cantfloors are added. |
| 1833 Richardson Merc. Mar. Arch. 21 The only guides in drawing the *cant frames. |
| 1869 E. J. Reed Ship Build. viii. 151 The half-beams stand in the planes of the Cant frames and are consequently nearly at right angles to the side. |
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Cant-line, synonymous with girt-line, as to cant the top over the lowermast-head. 1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl., Cantline, the space between the sides or ends of barrels. 1961 F. H. Burgess Dict. Sailing 44 The ‘cant line’ is the groove between strands of a rope, rows of casks or drums, etc. |
| 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 582 *Cant-moulding, a bevelled surface. 1876 Gwilt Archit. Gloss., Cant-moulding, one with one or more bevelled, instead of curved, surfaces. |
| 1794 Rigging & Seamanship I. 4 *Cant-pieces are used in the angles of the fishes and side-trees. |
| 1871 Saddl. Harn. & Carriage Builder's Gaz. 1 Dec. 12/2 Levers and links, aided by springs, to throw open the *‘cant rails’ and ‘uprights’ of carriage heads by inside pressure. 1930 Motor Body Building LI. 105/1 Cant Rail, the longitudinal framing of the Roof. 1951 Engineering 8 June 705/3 The roof cantrail is an interesting design. 1958 Ibid. 14 Mar. 344/1 Continuous longitudinal stiffening members such as cantrails. 1969 Jane's Freight Containers 1968–69 505/2 End frames: Fabricated hollow section corner pillars with 6·35 mm (1/4 in) fixed end cantrail and hollow section. |
| c 1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 103 *Cant Ribands are those ribands that do not lie in a horizontal or level direction, or square from the middle line, but nearly square from the timbers, as the diagonal ribands. |
| 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) *Cant-timbers..those timbers which are situated at the two ends of a ship. They derive their name from being canted, or raised obliquely from the keel. c 1860 H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 67 Those timbers which form the bow and stern of a ship are called ‘cant timbers’. |
| 1663 Gerbier Counsel 13 Those Spectacle-like *cant Windows, which are of Glasse on all sides. 1877 E. Peacock N. W. Linc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Cant-window, a bay-window whose angles are bevelled off. 1881 Evans Leicestersh. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Cant-window, a projecting window with angles, as distinguished from a ‘bow-window’ which projects in a curve. |
13. From other senses: as in Whale-fishing (see 11). cant-blocks, the large purchase blocks used by whalers to cant the whales round during the process of flensing. cant-fall, the tackle connected with the cant-blocks of a whaling ship. cant-purchase is formed by a block suspended from the mainmast-head, and another block made fast to the cant cut in the whale. So cant-dog, cant-hook, cant-spar.
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Spike-tackle and cantfalls, the ropes and blocks used in whalers to sling their prey to the side of the ship. |
▪ II. cant, n.2 Now dial. and Forestry.
(kænt)
[App. connected immed. with cant v.1 ‘to share’, and with cantle, though in some uses it closely approaches cant n.1; whether this is original or due to subsequent confusion is not clear.]
A portion; a share; a parcel; a division.
| a 1541 Wyatt in Tottel's Misc. (Arb.) 92 Lend in no wise, But if thou can be sure to win a cant Of half at least 1736 J. Lewis Hist. Thanet Gloss, Cant, a corner of a field. 1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Cant of Dobbin, a roll of riband. 1847–78 Halliwell s.v.. In Hampshire a small bundle of hay is termed a cant. 1863 Morton Cycl. Agric. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Cant-furrow, a divisional furrow. 1875 Parish Sussex Dial., A haystack is said to be cut across in cants, and a field of wheat is divided into cants when it is portioned out in slips for the reapers, each of whom takes one or more cants as his share of work. 1928 Forestry II. 82 The season's coupe having been marked out previously into lots or ‘cants’. 1953 H. L. Edlin Forester's Handbk. xv. 255 The portion of the wood that is due for felling is marked out on the ground and, if it is large enough, divided into several parcels, called cants in Kent. 1965 Punch 15 Dec. 890/2 Our neighbour sold his at auction at the end of October in five cants—that is, slices, in this instance of roughly three acres apiece. |
▪ III. cant, n.3
(kænt)
[This and its accompanying vb. presumably represent L. cant-us singing, song, chant (Pr. and NFr. cant, Fr. chant), cantā-re NFr. canter) to sing, chant; but the details of the derivation and development of sense are unknown.
Cantare and its Romanic representatives were used contemptuously in reference to the church services as early as 1183, when according to Rigord (c 1200) Gest Philip. August. (1818) 11, the Cotarelli of the Bourges country ‘sacerdotes et viros religiosos captos secum ducentes, et irrisoriè cantores ipsos vocantes, in ipsis tormentis subsannando dicebant: Cantate nobis, cantores, cantate; et confestim dabant eis alapas, vel cum grossis virgis turpiter cædebant’. So far as the evidence shows, the vb. appears in Eng. first applied to the tones and language of beggars, ‘the canting crew’: this, which according to Harman was introduced c 1540, may have come down from the religious mendicants; or the word may have been actually made from Lat. or Romanic in the rogues' jargon of the time. The subsequent development assumed in the arrangement of the verb is quite natural, though not actually established. Some have however conjectured that cant is the Irish and Gaelic cainnt (pronounced kaɲtj, or nearly kantʃj) ‘language’. And as early as 1711 the word was asserted to be derived from the name of Andrew Cant or his son Alexander Cant, Presbyterian ministers of the 17th c. This perhaps means that the surname of the two Cants was occasionally associated derisively with canting. The arrangement of the n. here is tentative, and founded mainly on that of the vb., which appears on the whole earlier.]
† I. (Sporadic uses, from L. cantus or its representatives; not directly related to II.)
† 1. Singing, musical sound. cant organ: app. a technical term in music. Obs.
| 1501 Douglas Pal. Hon. i. xlii, Fabourdoun, pricksang, discant, countering, Cant organe, figuratioun, and gemmell. 1704 Swift T. Tub Wks. 1760 I. 100 Cant and vision are to the ear and the eye the same that tickling is to the touch. 1708 Brit. Apollo No. 79. 2/2 That shrill Cant of the Grasshoppers. |
† 2. Accent, intonation, tone. Obs.
| 1663 Aron-bimn. 110 It depends not upon the cant and tone, or the wording of the Minister. 1763 Ann. Reg. 307/2 If these lines want that sober cant which is necessary to an epitaph. |
II. The speech or phraseology of beggars, etc., and senses connected therewith.
3. ‘A whining manner of speaking, esp. of beggars’; a whine.
| 1640 Cleveland in Wilkins Polit. Ballads I. 28 By lies and cants, [they] Would trick us to believe 'em saints. 1705 Hickeringill Priest-cr. iv. (1721) 227 With a Cant like a Gypsie, a Whine like a beaten Spaniel. |
4. The peculiar language or jargon of a class: a. The secret language or jargon used by gipsies, thieves, professional beggars, etc.; transf. any jargon used for the purpose of secrecy.
| 1706 in Phillips. 1707 J. Stevens tr. Quevedo's Com. Wks. (1709) 226 They talk'd to one another in Cant. 1715 Kersey, Cant, Gibberish, Pedler's French. 1734 North Exam. ii. v. ¶110. 383 To avoid being understood by the Servants, they framed a Cant, and called the Design of a general Rising the Lease and Release. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. xvi. 127 The ring of the cant. |
b. The special phraseology of a particular class of persons, or belonging to a particular subject; professional or technical jargon. (Always depreciative or contemptuous.)
| 1684 T. Burnet Th. Earth I. 214 There is heat and moisture in the body, & you may call the one ‘radical’ and the other ‘innate’ if you please; this is but a sort of cant. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 421 ¶3 In the Cant of particular Trades and Employments. 1750 Johnson Rambl. No. 128 ¶4 Every class of society has its cant of lamentation, which is understood by none but themselves. 1839 Dickens Nich. Nick. xxxiv, All love—bah! that I should use the cant of boys and girls—is fleeting enough. 1841–4 Emerson Ess. xiii. Poet Wks. (Bohn) I. 156 Criticism is infested with a cant of materialism. 1861 Holland Less. Life viii. 119 Repeating the cant of their sect and the cant of their schools. |
† c. The peculiar phraseology of a religious sect or class. (Cf. 5 b.) Obs.
| 1681 Dryden Abs. & Achit. 521 Hot Levites..Resum'd their cant, and with a zealous cry Pursued their old beloved theocracy. 1696 C. Leslie Snake in Gr. (1698) Introd. 46 Really to understand the Quaker-Cant is learning a new Language. 1709 Sacheverell Serm. 15 Aug. 15 Diabolical Inspiration, and Non-sensical Cant. 1711 Spect. No. 147 ¶3 Cant is by some people derived from one Andrew Cant who, they say, was a Presbyterian minister..who by exercise & use had obtained the Faculty, alias Gift, of talking in the Pulpit in such a dialect, that it's said he was understood by none but his own Congregation, and not by all of them. |
d. Provincial dialect; vulgar slang.
| 1802 M. Edgeworth Irish Bulls (1832) 226 The cant of Suffolk, the vulgarisms of Shropshire. 1852 Gladstone Glean. IV. lxxxii. 122 The coarse reproduction of that unmitigated cant or slang. |
e. attrib.
| 1727 Swift Let. Eng. Tongue Wks. 1755 II. i. 185 To introduce and multiply cant words is the most ruinous corruption in any language. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. I. 273 Slang talk and cant jokes. 1841 Borrow Zincali (1843) II. 150 The first Vocabulary of the ‘Cant Language’..appeared in the year 1680 appended to the life of ‘The English Rogue’. |
5. A form of words, a phrase: † a. A set form of words repeated perfunctorily or mechanically. Obs.
| 1681 Sejanus in Bagford Ballads (1878) 758 note, A young Scribe is copying out a Cant, Next morn for to be spoke in Parliament. 1704 Steele Lying Lover i. i. 7 Sure..you talk by Memory, a Form or Cant which you mistake for something that's gallant. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 291 §6 With a certain cant of words. |
b. A pet phrase, a trick of words; esp. a stock phrase that is much affected at the time, or is repeated as a matter of habit or form. (Formerly with a and pl.) arch.
| 1681 Country-man's Compl. & Advice to King, Gods! to be twice cajol'd by cants and looks. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. II./450 Enamour'd with his obstreporousness and undecent cants. 1692 Bentley Boyle Lect. 200 That ordinary cant of illiterate..atheists, the fortuitous or casual concourse of atoms. 1710 Hearne Collect. (1886) II. 365 The late happy Revolution, (so he calls it, according to the common Cant). 1769 Junius Lett. xxvi. 119 note, Measures, and not men, is the common cant of affected moderation. c 1815 Jane Austen Northang. Abb. (1833) I. v. 22 It is really very well for a novel..is the common cant. |
c. attrib.
| 1712 Addison Spect. No. 530 ¶3 Enlivened with little cant-phrases. 1753 Stewart's Trial App. 130 It was a cant word through the country, That the tenants might sit, since the worst of it would be paying the violent profits. 1774 Gouv. Morris in Sparks Life & Writ. (1832) I. 23 The belwethers..roared out liberty, and property, and a multitude of cant terms. 1790 Paley Horæ Paul. (1849) 396 There is such a thing as a peculiar word or phrase cleaving, as it were, to the memory of a writer or speaker and presenting itself to his utterance at every turn. When we observe this we call it a cant word or a cant phrase. 1855 Prescott Philip II (1857) I. v. 79 To borrow a cant phrase of the day, like ‘a fixed fact’. 1868 Helps Realmah xvii. (1876) 465 He..can—to use the cant phrase—afford to support the dignity of the peerage. |
6. As a kind of phraseology: a. Phraseology taken up and used for fashion's sake, without being a genuine expression of sentiment; canting language.
| 1710 Berkeley Princ. Hum. Knowl. §87 All this sceptical cant follows from our supposing, etc. 1783 Johnson in Boswell 15 May, My dear friend, clear your mind of cant..you may talk in this manner; it is a mode of talking in society; but don't think foolishly. 1809 Syd. Smith Wks. (1867) I. 174 The pernicious cant of indiscriminate loyalty. 1870 Lowell Study Wind. 157 Enthusiasm, once cold, can never be warmed over into anything better than cant. 1875 Smiles Thrift ii. 20 In fact there is no greater cant than can't. 1883 J. Parker Tyne Ch. 320 There is a cant of infidelity as certainly as there is a cant of belief. |
b. esp. Affected or unreal use of religious or pietistic phraseology; language (or action) implying the pretended assumption of goodness or piety.
| 1709 Strype Ann. Ref. I. lv. 609, I set down this letter at large, that men may see the cant of these men. 1716 Addison Freeholder No. 37 (J.) That cant and hypocrisy, which had taken possession of the people's minds in the times of the great rebellion. 1789 Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France I. 256 Hypocritical manners, or what we so emphatically call cant. 1849 Robertson Serm. Ser. i. x. (1866) 182 Religious phraseology passes into cant. 1875 Hamerton Intell. Life vi. iii. 211 He had a horror of cant, which..gave him a repulsion for all outward show of religious observances. 1879 Froude Cæsar i. 6 The whole spiritual atmosphere was saturated with cant. |
c. attrib.
| 1747 Carte Hist. Eng. I. 601 To make up what was wanting in the justice of their cause..by a cant and sophistical way of expression. |
7. One who uses religious phrases unreally.
| 1725 New Cant. Dict., Cant, an Hypocrite, a Dissembler, a double-tongu'd, whining Person. 1824 Mrs. Cameron Pink Tippet iii. 16 Lest she should be called a cant. 1873 E. Berdoc Adv. Protestant 132 He was not a cant, but really felt what he said. |
▪ IV. cant, n.4
(kænt)
[Goes with cant v.4 The n. (if not immediately from the vb.) may be an aphetic form of *encant, or *acant, a. OF. encant, mod.F. encan (Pr. encant, Sp. encanto, It. incanto), in same sense: of disputed origin. The loss of the initial syllable is found also in MHG. and mod.G. gant in same sense.
Diez takes the Romanic words as repr. L. in quantum ‘to how much?’ as the cry of the auctioneer; and with this agree the occas. med.L. form inquantus, Pr. enquant, and OF. inquant, and med.L. vb. inquantare. But no forms of the word appear to go back before the end of the 12th c.; the earliest and ordinary forms in med.L. were incantus (4th decl.), incantum, incantare, accantare, incantator, accantator; and OF. had enchanteur, enchantement (already in Assizes of Jerusalem). These show that the word was then identified with the Lat. incantare, accantare, derivs. of cantare to sing, in the sense of ‘proclaim, cry’. Cf. Du Cange, under date 1351, ‘quod incantator publicus dicti castri..debeat facere proclamationem’, and the illustrative ‘jussit ergo Moyses praeconis voce cantari’. M. Paul Meyer thinks the identification with cantare too old and general to be explained as an error; and that there is more ground for treating the connexion with in quantum as a later fancy. Cf. also the mod.Fr. vendre a la criée to sell by auction, and the Sc. and north. Eng. roup, cry, shout, auction, ‘selling of goods by an outcry’ (Phillips 1678).]
A disposal of property by public competition to the highest bidder; an auction. Chiefly Irish.
| 1705 Lond. Gaz. No. 4178/4 The Manor..is to be sold by publick Cant to the best Bidder. 1738 Hist. Crt. Excheq. vii. 134 The Goods are set up to Cant. 1832 H. Martineau Ireland ii. 27 Two or three lots of ground were to be let by auction, or, as the phrase goes, by cant. 1834 Southey Doctor cxxxix. (1862) 352 The whole of them were set up for sale by public cant in Dublin. |
▪ V. cant, n.5 Sc.
[Of uncertain origin: possibly belongs to one of the prec. ns. Cf. also cantrip.]
? ‘Trick; slight, illusion’ (Jamieson).
| 1790 Morison Poems 38 (Jam.) Williy's wisp wi' whirlin' cant Their blazes ca'. 1813 D. Anderson Poems 81 (Jam.) Superstition..Experiencing plans O' auld cants that night. |
▪ VI. cant, a. Sc. and north. dial.
(kænt)
Also 4–6 kant, 5 kaunt.
[Common in early times (13–14th c.) in the allit. phrase ‘kant and keen’. App. the same word as mod.Du. kant ‘neat, clever’, in phr. kant en klaar quite ready; also East Fris. kant; considered by Franck to have been developed out of the n. kant edge, etc. (see cant n.1); cf. the connexion of idea in ‘keen’ and ‘edge’. The actual historical relation between the Low German and the northern English word does not appear. Hence canty, Flem. and LG. kantig.]
Bold, brisk, courageous, hearty, lusty, lively, hale. The Sc. sense leans to ‘Lively, merry, brisk’; cf. Jamieson, who compares ‘cant men’ (armed followers) with ‘merry men’ of the ballads.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 8943 Iuus þat war sa cant [Gött. & Trin. crabbed] and kene. 1330 R. Brunne Chron. 50 Knoute com with his kythe, þat kant was and kene. 1375 Barbour Bruce viii. 280 The kyng..Vith his men that war cant and keyn. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 2195 The knyghte coue⁓ride on his knees with a kaunt herte. c 1440 Gaw. & Gol. ii. 2 (Jam.) Cant men and cruel. c 1450 Henryson Mor. Fab. 5 Ane Cocke..Right cant and crous. 1513 Douglas æneis viii. Prol. 42 The cadgear callis furth his capill wyth crakis waill cant. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 517 Alss blyth and als rejosit, And in him self that tyme als crous and kant. 1674 Ray N.C. Wds. 9 Cant, strong lusty; ‘Very cant, God yield you’, i.e. Very strong and lusty, God reward you. Chesh. 1849 C. Brontë Shirley I. 189 Th' wife's a raight cant body. 1868 E. Waugh Sneck-Bant iv. 76 As cant as a kitlin. |
▪ VII. † cant, v.1 Obs.
[Of uncertain etym.: associated in sense with cant n.2, but of much earlier appearance, being the oldest vb. cant in the lang., and as a word preceded only by cant a. and cant n.1 Since the dim. of the latter word, cantel, chanteau, cantle, had the sense of ‘piece, fragment’, it is possible that this sense may have attached also to the primitive, and that a verb to cant ‘to divide into pieces’ may have been in LG. or ONF.: but it has not yet been found.]
1. trans. To part, divide, share, parcel out, apportion.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 60 Cantyn or departyn, partior, divido. 1529 More Comf. agst. Trib. iii. Wks. 1245/2 Our very prison this earth is. And yet therof we cant vs out..dyuers partes dyuerslye to our self. 1533 ― Debell. Salem Wks. 943/2 To diuide & cant it among good poore husband men, that should til the ground [with] theyr handes. |
2. (See quot.) Cf. cant n.2 (quot. 1875).
| 1863 Morton Cycl. Agric. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Cant, (Kent), to let out land to mow, hoe, etc. |
▪ VIII. cant, v.2
(kænt)
[f. cant n.1; cf. Du. and Ger. kanten in several of the same senses.]
I. trans.
1. To give a cant edge to; to bevel; esp. to bevel off a corner.
| 1542–3 Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII, vi, Pinnes..shal..haue..the point well and rounde filled, canted, and sharped. 1791 Smeaton Edystone L. §274 The corners only were a little canted off. 1812 J. Hodgson in J. Raines Mem. (1857) I. 97 The several pillars which have their uppermost corner canted off. 1851–3 Turner Dom. Archit. II. ii. 30 The Abacus is square, with the angles canted. |
2. To bring or put (a thing) into an oblique position, so that it is no longer vertical or horizontal; to slope, slant, tilt up.
| 1711 Duncan Mariner's Chron. (1805) III. 302 The sea broke in upon us, and the canoe being filled half full, canted her broadside to it. 1756 Winthrop in Phil. Trans. L. 11 Some [chimnies] were..canted horizontally an inch or two over, so as to stand very dangerously. 1792 Munchausen's Trav. ix. 30 The wind rose suddenly, and canted our barge on one side. 1826 Miss Mitford Vill. Ser. iii. (1863) 496 She sat..with her feet canted up on an ottoman. 1884 Pall Mall G. 12 Aug. 12/1 If the ship needs a ‘list’, she can be canted. |
b. To turn over completely, turn upside down.
| c 1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 103 Canting, the act of turning anything completely over, so that the under surface shall lie upwards. 1855 Kingsley Glaucus (1878) 160 Without canting the net over, and pouring the contents roughly out. |
† c. fig. (?) To incline, adapt with a bias. Obs.
| 1682 Southerne Loyal Bro. iv. Wks. 1721 I. 56 Gifted rogues, That cant their doctrine to their present wants. |
3. To throw off, e.g. to empty out, the contents of a vessel by tilting it up. to cant off: to decant.
| 1658 A. Fox Wurtz' Surg. iii. viii. 241 Let it stand in a warm place..then cant of the Aquavitæ cleanly. a 1845 Hood Poems (1864) 265 As vessels cant their ballast—rattling rubbish. |
4. To pitch as by the sudden lurching of a ship; to toss, to throw with a sudden jerk.
| 1685 F. Spence Ho. Medici 120 Some couragious Priests had the leisure to joyn him, and cant him into a vestry, that was accidentally open. 1755 Smollett Quix. (1803) II. 130 This very innkeeper..held a corner of the blanket, and canted me into the air with great strength and nimbleness. 1791 Smeaton Edystone L. §254 note, The boat took a sudden yaw or sheer, which canted me overboard, head-long into the sea. 1805 Naval Chron. XIII. 387 The Ship gave a lurch, by which he was canted into the mizen shrouds! 1816 Scott Antiq. xvii, That spray of a bramble has..nearly canted my wig into the stream. 1861 G. Berkeley Sportsm. W. Prairies v. 82 ‘Does the cow-catcher’, I asked, ‘always cant the beef on one side’? |
II. intr.
5. To tilt, take an inclined position, pitch on one side, turn over; often to cant over.
| 1702 C. Mather Magn. Chr. vi. ii. (1852) 356 It fell on end and then canted along on the floor between two of the children. 1851 S. Judd Margaret iii. (1871) 15 It jolted over stones, canted on knolls, sidled into gutters. 1862 Smiles Engineers III. 410 note, A loose plank, which canted over. 1858 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. (1873) II. 88 The celestial sign of the Balance just about canting. Ibid. (1865) II. v. ii. 72 The History so-called of Europe went canting from side to side. 1884 Manch. Exam. 10 Sept. 5/1 The steamer, which had canted over, lay in a very dangerous position. |
6. To have a slanting position, lie aslant, slope.
| 1794 Rigging & Seamanship II. 301 The upper fluke should cant down. 1882 Nares Seamanship (ed. 6) 135 The..yard-arm should..cant abaft the yard rope. |
7. Naut. To take, move into, or have an oblique position in reference to any defined course or direction; to swing round from a position.
| 1784 in Nicolas Disp. Nelson VII. Add. 7 At 7 weighed: in canting the ship got stern way. 1859 Blackw. Mag. LXXXVI. 655/2 The great length of the Nimrod and Cormorant caused them, when canting or swinging across the Channel, almost to block it up. 1887 Blackmore in Harper's Mag. Mar. 563 The boat canted round towards the entrance of the creek. a 1888 Newspaper, The stern of the Andalusian was seen to be canting to the southward. |
† 8. fig. to cant with: ? to fall in with, take the direction of. (Cf. 2 c.) Obs.
| 1656 in Burton Diary (1828) I. 111 They were all cantings, such as could not cant with my thoughts. |
† 9. (See quot. 1877.) Obs. or dial.
| 1674 [see canting vbl. n.1]. 1877 Holderness Gloss. (E.D.S.) Cant, to move about with a jaunty step. ‘Why awd woman gans cantin aboot like a young lass.’ |
▪ IX. cant, v.3
(kænt)
[See cant n.3 It is not certain whether the vb. or the n. came first.]
I. 1. intr. To speak in the whining or singsong tone used by beggars; to beg.
| 1567 Harman Caveat (1869) 34 ‘It shall be lawefull for the to Cant’—that is, to aske or begge—‘for thy living in al places.’ 1612 Beaum. & Fl. Cupid's Rev. iv. 418 The cunning'st rankest rogue that ever Canted. 1687 Congreve Old Bachel. iii. vi, Thy master..lies canting at the gate. 1750 Johnson Rambl. No. 171 ¶10 [He] bad me cant and whine in some other place. |
2. intr. To speak in the peculiar jargon or ‘cant’ of vagabonds, thieves, and the like.
| 1609 Dekker Lanth. & Candle-L. Wks. 1885 III. 194 He that in such assemblies can cant best, is counted the best Musitian. 1652 Gaule Magastrom. To Rdr., He cannot tell how to cant with him [a gypsie] in his own foysting gibborish. c 1652 H. More in R. Ward Life (1710) 307, I don't deny but that may sooner teach a Man to Cant and talk Gibberish. 1708 Kersey, Cant, to talk darkly, after the manner of Thieves, Beggars, &c. 1721–1800 in Bailey. |
b. slang and dial. To speak, talk; in Sc. (see quot. 1788).
| 1567 Harman Caveat (1869) 84 The vpright Cofe canteth to the Roge. 1690 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Cant, to speak. 1713 Ramsay Elegy Maggy Johnstoun, Of auld stories we did cant. 1726 Ayliffe Parerg. 309 Tho' it cants or speaks in another manner. 1788 Picken Poems Gloss., Cant, to tell merry old stories. |
c. trans. To speak or utter in a cant way.
| 1592 Greene Def. Coneycatch. (1859) 5 To heare a pesant cant the wordes of art belonging to our trade. 1631 R. Brathwait Whimzies, Wine-soaker 102 Which sackes his capitall, makes his tongue cant broken English. 1633 Shirley Gamesters iii. iii, Canting broken Dutch for farthings. |
† 3. intr. To use the special phraseology or jargon of a particular class or subject. ? Obs.
| 1625 B. Jonson Staple of N. iv. iv, When my Muster-Master Talkes of his Tacticks, and his Rankes, and Files..Doth not he cant? Ibid. Thou canst cant too. Pic. In all the Language in Westminster Hall, Pleas, Bench, or Chancery, Fee-Farm, Fee-Tail, Tenant in Dower, etc., etc. 1688 Miege Gt. Fr. Dict., Cant, to speak a canting Language, to have an affected peculiar kind of Speech. 1698 Norris Pract. Disc. 262 The Quakers..only Cant in some loose general Expressions about the Light. |
† 4. To say or exclaim in the pet phraseology of the day, to use the phrases currently affected at the time. Also, to cant it: to phrase it in the cant of the period. Obs.
| 1648 W. Jenkyn Blind Guide i. 6 No other import or tendency (as he cants it). 1660 S. Ford Loyal Subject's Exult. 13 The Sovereign Authority of the People (as our Times have learned to cant it). 1669 W. Simpson Hydrol. Chym. 24 Those..which they so much cant to be drying decoctions. 1710 Sir J. St. Leger Managers Pro & Con, in Somers Tracts Ser. iv. (1751) III. 242 To set right (as they cant) the..Youth of the University. a 1716 South 12 Serm. (1744) II. 64 There was thirty years more generation-work (as they canted it) cut out for him. |
5. To affect the conventional phraseology of a school, party, or subject.
| 1728 Young Love Fame vi. (1757) 155 Let them cant on, since they have got the knack, And dress their notions, like themselves, in black. 1784 Johnson in Boswell (1887) IV. 308 Don't cant in defence of savages. 1802 M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1816) I. xiv. 114 Who cants about the pre-eminence of mind. 1866 Carlyle Remin. II. 215 A paltry print then much canted of. 1870 Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. (1873) 340 Lessing..knew the classics, and did not merely cant about them. |
6. spec. To affect religious or pietistic phraseology, esp. as a matter of fashion or profession; to talk unreally or hypocritically with an affectation of goodness or piety.
| 1678 Butler Hud. iii. ii. 765 Till they first began to Cant And sprinkle down the Covenant. 1778 Johnson in Boswell 12 Apr., He [Dr. Dodd] may have composed this prayer then. A man who has been canting all his life, may cant to the last. 1813 Scott Rokeby i. xviii, I could not cant of creed or prayer. 1851 Kingsley Yeast xi. (1853) 189 In Christian England Where they cant of a Saviour's name, And yet waste men's lives like vermin's. 1856 R. Vaughan Mystics (1860) II. viii. ix. 102 Those dreamers who..cant about a general brotherhood which exempts them from particular charity. |
7. trans. (in senses 5, 6.)
| 1641 M. Frank Serm. Transfig. (1672) 514 To set up King Jesus; a phrase much canted. 1676 Marvell Mr. Smirke I iij, Shall any sort of men presume to..force every man to Cant after them what it is not lawful for any man to utter? 1761 Sterne Tr. Shandy iii. xii. 60 Of all the cants which are canted in this canting world..the cant of criticism is the most tormenting. 1825 Edin. Rev. XLII. 355 He may cant out his panegyricks. 1843 Macaulay in Life & Lett. (1880) II. 146, I have heard the same cant canted about a much finer building. |
8. dial. (See quots.)
| 1877 E. Peacock N.-W. Linc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Cant, to deceive by pious pretences, to impose upon. 1881 Evans Leicestersh Gloss. (E.D.S.) Cant, to wheedle; coax; humour. ‘The pony'll be quiet enough when he's been canted a bit.’ |
II. † 9. trans. To chant, sing; to repeat in a sing-song manner, intone. Obs.
| 1652 Gaule Magastrom. 24 Who is an Inchanter? A Sooth-singer, by canting numbers, or a Sooth-sayer by calculating numbers. 1705 Hickeringill Priest-Cr. ii. iii. 35 Singing Men and singing Boys, that instead of rehearsing the Creed, cant it, like the tune called the Mock-Nightingale. |
† 10. intr. To chant, sing. Sc. or dial. ? Obs.
| 1768 Ross Helenore 59 (Jam.) The birdies..Canting fu' cheerfu'. |
▪ X. cant, v.4
(kænt)
[cf. cant n.4, and the med.L. cognate verbs incantāre, accantāre to proclaim, cry, put up to auction, there mentioned.]
To dispose of by auction. Chiefly Irish.
The first quotation may belong to cant v.1 to divide.
| [1570 Wills & Inv. N.C. (1835) 328, I will y{supt} all my goods aft{supr} my deathe shalbe canted & sold at my foredore & then to be distributed in money by euen portions to my executors.] 1720 Swift Irish Manuf. Wks. 1761 III. 4 Canting their own lands upon short leases, and sacrificing their oldest tenants for a penny an acre. 1723 ― Power of Bps. ibid. 262 [Irish] landlords..cant their lands to the highest bidder. 1828 T. C. Croker Fairy Leg. Irel. II. 236 Tim the driver swears if we don't pay up our rent, he'll cant every ha'perth we have. 1839 W. Carleton Fardorougha (ed. 2) 46 He..canted all we had at half price, and turned us to starve on the world. 1880 in Antrim & Down Gloss. |
† 2. To enhance by competitive bidding. rare.
| a 1745 Swift Hist. Eng., Will. II (R.) When two monks were outvying each other in canting the price of an abbey. |
▪ XI. † cant, v.5 Obs. dial.
[f. cant a.]
intr. To become ‘cant’ or well; to recover strength, to mend. Hence ˈcanting vbl. n.
| 1690 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Cant..also (Cheshire) to grow Strong and Lusty. 1691 Ray N.C. Wds. s.v., ‘A health to the good wives [wife's] canting’ i.e. her recovering after lying-in. |
▪ XII. cant, v.6
= scant.
| 1580 Tusser Husb. (1878) 184 Good huswiferie canteth [1577 scanteth] the lenger to last. |