cant

English Online Dictionary. What means cant‎? What does cant mean?

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: kănt, IPA^(key): /kænt/
• Homophone: can't (US), Homophone: Kant (in anglicized pronunciation)
• Rhymes: -ænt

Etymology 1

From Latin cantō probably via Old Northern French canter (“sing, tell”). Doublet of chant.

Noun

cant (usually uncountable, plural cants)

1. (countable) An argot, the jargon of a particular class or subgroup.

   Synonyms: argot, jargon, slang

   • 1836, Three discourses preached before the Congregational Society in Watertown, page 65

2. (countable, uncountable) A private or secret language used by a religious sect, gang, or other group.

   Synonyms: argot, jargon, slang

3. A language spoken by some Irish Travellers; Shelta.
4. (uncountable, derogatory) Empty, hypocritical talk.
5. (uncountable) Whining speech, such as that used by beggars.
6. (countable, heraldry) A blazon of a coat of arms that makes a pun upon the name (or, less often, some attribute or function) of the bearer, canting arms.
7. (obsolete) A call for bidders at a public fair; an auction.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

cant (third-person singular simple present cants, present participle canting, simple past and past participle canted)

2. (intransitive) To speak with the jargon of a class or subgroup.
3. (intransitive) To speak in set phrases.
4. (intransitive) To talk, beg, or preach in a singsong or whining fashion, especially in a false or empty manner.
5. (intransitive, heraldry) Of a blazon, to make a pun that references the bearer of a coat of arms.
6. (obsolete) To sell by auction, or bid at an auction.

Derived terms

See also

• jargon
• sociolect

Etymology 2

From Middle English cant (“edge, brink”), from Middle Dutch cant (“point, side, edge”) (Modern Dutch kant (“side, edge”)), ultimately of Celtic or Latin origin. Related to Medieval Latin cantus (“corner, side”), from Latin canthus.

Noun

cant (plural cants)

2. (obsolete) Side, edge, corner, niche.

   under the cant of a hill
3. Slope, the angle at which something is set.
4. A corner (of a building).

   Synonym: corner

5. An outer or external angle.
6. An inclination from a horizontal or vertical line; a slope or bevel; a tilt.

   Synonyms: bevel, slope, tilt

7. A movement or throw that overturns something.
   • 1830, The Edinburgh Encyclopedia, volume 3, page 621

     It is not only of great service in keeping the boat in her due position on the sea, but also in creating a tendency immediately to recover from any sudden cant, or lurch, from a heavy wave; and it is besides beneficial in diminishing the violence of beating against the sides of the vessel which she may go to relieve.

8. A sudden thrust, push, kick, or other impulse, producing a bias or change of direction; also, the bias or turn so given.

9. (coopering) A segment forming a side piece in the head of a cask.
10. A segment of the rim of a wooden cogwheel.
11. (nautical) A piece of wood laid upon the deck of a vessel to support the bulkheads.
12. (lumbering) An unfinished log after preliminary cutting.

Derived terms

Related terms

• cantilever

Translations

Verb

cant (third-person singular simple present cants, present participle canting, simple past and past participle canted)

1. (transitive) To set (something) at an angle; to tilt.

   to cant a cask

   to cant a ship
2. (transitive) To give a sudden turn or new direction to.

   to cant round a stick of timber

   to cant a football

3. (transitive) To bevel an edge or corner.
4. (transitive) To overturn so that the contents are emptied.

Derived terms

• recant (Etymology 2)

Translations

Etymology 3

Unknown, but compare Provençal cantel (“corner, piece”) or Old Northern French cantel (“piece broken off”). The verb is attested from the 15th century, and the noun from the 16th. See cantle, from which cant is possibly back-formed as if it contained the suffix -le.

Verb

cant (third-person singular simple present cants, present participle canting, simple past and past participle canted)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To divide or parcel out.

Noun

cant (plural cants)

1. (dialectal, forestry) A parcel, a division.

Etymology 4

From Middle English cant, kaunt, presumably from Middle Low German *kant, perhaps a slang word related to kant (“edge, rim”), from Medieval Latin canthus. Attested from the 13th or 14th century.

Alternative forms

• kant

Adjective

cant (not comparable)

1. (British, dialectal) Lively, lusty.

References

Further reading

• Cant (language) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• NCTA, T-Can

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈkan]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [ˈkant]

Etymology 1

Inherited from Latin cantus. Compare Occitan cant.

Noun

cant m (plural cants)

1. song

   Synonym: cançó

Derived terms

Related terms

Etymology 2

Ultimately from Ancient Greek κανθός (kanthós, “corner of the eye”), perhaps via Latin canthus (“rim of a wheel”).

Noun

cant m (plural cants)

1. canthus (corner of the eye, where the eyelids meet)

References

• “cant”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “cant” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Italian

Noun

cant m (apocopated)

1. apocopic form of canto

Middle English

Alternative forms

• cante, kant, kaunt

Etymology

Possibly from Middle Low German *kant, perhaps a slang word related to kant (“edge, rim”), from Medieval Latin canthus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kant/

Adjective

cant

1. (Northern, Early Scots) bold, lively, cant
   • c. 1340, Cursor Mundi, Cotton Vespasian A iii, lines 8943-46:

Descendants

• English: cant (dialectal)
• Scots: cant

References

• “cant, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Middle Scots

Alternative forms

• kant

Etymology

From Middle English cant (“bold, lively”).

Adjective

cant

1. lively

Old French

Noun

cant oblique singular, m (oblique plural canz or cantz, nominative singular canz or cantz, nominative plural cant)

1. alternative form of chant

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from German Kante.

Noun

cant n (plural canturi)

1. edge

Declension

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kant/
• Rhymes: -ant

Etymology 1

From Middle Welsh and Old Welsh cant, from Proto-Brythonic *kant, from Proto-Celtic *kantom, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱm̥tóm.

Numeral

cant

1. (cardinal number) one hundred

Usage notes

• Preceding a noun, cant takes the form can.
• Cardinals following cant employ a (“and”) as a connecting word, which stands in contrast to ordinals after canfed, which use wedi'r (“past the, after the”), e.g. cant ac un (“one hundred and one”) but cyntaf wedi'r cant (“hundred-and-first”).

Derived terms

• hanner cant (“fifty”)
• cant a hanner (“one hundred and fifty”)
• dau gant (“two hundred”)
• tri chant (“three hundred”)
• pum cant (“five hundred”)

Noun

cant m (plural cannoedd)

1. hundred
2. century

Derived terms

• cannoedd ar filoedd (“hundreds of thousands”)

Etymology 2

Middle Welsh, from Proto-Celtic *kantos (“corner, rim”). Related to Breton kant (“circle”), Old Irish cétad (“round seat”).

Noun

cant m (plural cantau)

1. hoop
2. rim

Derived terms

• haearngant (“strake, tyre”)

Mutation

References

• Definition from the BBC
• Hoops, Johannes (1973): Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, Volume 16, p. 445