canty, a. Sc. and north. dial.
(ˈkæntɪ)
[A deriv. of cant a., either native or of Low German origin: cf. Flem. and LG. kantig, similarly related to kant, there referred to.]
Cheerful, lively, gladsome; esp. in Sc. manifesting gladness and cheerfulness; in north of England rather = lively, brisk, active: a. of persons.
| a 1724 Gaberlunzie Man ii, He grew canty, and she grew fain. 1725 Ramsay Gent. Sheph. i. i, I'll be mair canty wi't, and ne'er cry dool. c 1775 A. Grant Roy's Wife, O, she was a cantie quean. 1789 Burns To Dr. Blacklock, And are ye hale, and weel, and cantie? 1837 Dickens Pickw. (1847) 406/2 Three or four..canty old Scotch fellows. 1845 E. Brontë Wuthering Heights xxii. 193 My mother lived till eighty, a canty dame to the last. 1864 Atkinson Whitby Gloss. s.v., ‘She's a canty aud deeam for her years.’ 1866 Carlyle Remin. E. Irving 135 Canty, shrewd and witty fellows, when you set them talking. |
b. of things.
| 1725 Ramsay Gent. Sheph. i. ii, Little love or canty cheer can come Frae duddy doublets, and a pantry toom. 1786 Harvest Rig in Chambers Pop. Hum. Sc. Poems (1862) 34 Till they do lilt some canty song. 1789 Burns J. Anderson, And mony a canty day, John, We've had wi' ane anither. |