cant

cant
    n 1: stock phrases that have become nonsense through endless
         repetition [syn: {buzzword}, {cant}]
    2: 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}]
    3: a characteristic language of a particular group (as among
       thieves); "they don't speak our lingo" [syn: {slang}, {cant},
       {jargon}, {lingo}, {argot}, {patois}, {vernacular}]
    4: insincere talk about religion or morals [syn: {cant}, {pious
       platitude}]
    5: two surfaces meeting at an angle different from 90 degrees
       [syn: {bevel}, {cant}, {chamfer}]
    v 1: heel over; "The tower is tilting"; "The ceiling is
         slanting" [syn: {cant}, {cant over}, {tilt}, {slant},
         {pitch}]
    

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