cant¹

(kănt)

1. Angular deviation from a vertical or horizontal plane or surface; an inclination or slope.

2. A slanted or oblique surface.

a. A thrust or motion that tilts something.

b. The tilt caused by such a thrust or motion.

4. An outer corner, as of a building.

v. cant·ed, cant·ing, cants

v.tr.

1. To set at an oblique angle; tilt.

2. To give a slanting edge to; bevel.

3. To change the direction of suddenly.

v.intr.

1. To lean to one side; slant.

2. To take an oblique direction or course; swing around, as a ship.

[Middle English, side, from Old North French, from Vulgar Latin *cantus, corner, from Latin canthus, rim of wheel, tire, of Celtic origin.]

cant²

(kănt)

1. Tedious or hackneyed language, especially when used sanctimoniously: "a merciless onslaught upon the cant of the age, the cant about progress, equality, [and] universal education" (C. Vann Woodward).

a. The special vocabulary peculiar to the members of an underworld group; argot.

b. The special vocabulary of a profession, discipline, or social group; jargon.

3. Cant See Shelta.

4. Whining or singsong speech, such as that used by beggars.

intr.v. cant·ed, cant·ing, cants

1. To speak tediously or sanctimoniously.

2. To speak in argot or jargon.

3. To speak in a whining or singsong voice.

[Anglo-Norman cant, song, singing, from canter, to sing, from Latin cantāre; see kan- in Indo-European roots.]

cant′ing·ly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

canting

(ˈkæntɪŋ)

adj

insincere; hypocritical

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Translations

canting

[ˈkæntɪŋ] ADJ → hipócrita

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Were you tarred with the same brush as those canting snobs who doomed a poor old man to a living death?

View in context

At every jump too, Hands appeared still more to sink into himself and settle down upon the deck, his feet sliding ever the farther out, and the whole body canting towards the stern, so that his face became, little by little, hid from me; and at last I could see nothing beyond his ear and the frayed ringlet of one whisker.

View in context

Two people, when they love each other, grow alike in their tastes and habits and pride, but their moral natures (whatever we may mean by that canting expression) are never welded.

View in context

'And I heard him ask Maister Hatfield who I was, an' he says, "Oh, she's a canting old fool."

So I dusted him a chair, an' fettled up th' fireplace a bit; but I hadn't forgotten th' Rector's words, so says I, "I wonder, sir, you should give yourself that trouble, to come so far to see a 'canting old fool,' such as me."

View in context

I incline as little to the sickly feeling which makes every canting lie or maudlin speech of a notorious criminal a subject of newspaper report and general sympathy, as I do to those good old customs of the good old times which made England, even so recently as in the reign of the Third King George, in respect of her criminal code and her prison regulations, one of the most bloody-minded and barbarous countries on the earth.

View in context

Canting the bow isn't a problem as long as it's done in exactly the same manner and degree for every shot.

How to Use Your Sight's Bubble Level

As a measure in the process of eliminating--or at least reducing--the effects of accuracy-robbing scope canting, we can install a scope leveling device designed for the purpose.

Scope leveler device: canting a rifle will always degrade accuracy to some extent but there are positive measures that can be taken to alleviate this on our way to reliable accuracy. Here's how to make, install, and test a scope leveler

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