Definition/Meaning of cant

• English - Noun: cant (usually uncountable, plural cants) (countable, usually) An argot , the jargon of a particular class or subgroup . He had the look of a prince, but the cant of a fishmonger. 1836, Three discourses preached before the Congregational Society in Watertown, page 65 I am aware that the phrase free inquiry has become too much a cant phrase soiled by the handling of the ignorant and the reckless…
• English - Verb: cant (third-person singular simple present cants, present participle canting, simple past and past participle canted) (intransitive) To speak with the jargon of a class or subgroup. 1854, Robert Sanderson, “The case of the liturgy”, in The Works of Robert Sanderson, D.D., Sometime Bishop of Lincoln, volume 5, page 56: […]that uncouth affected garb of speech, or canting language rather, if I may…
• English - Adjective: cant (not comparable) (UK, dialectal, not comparable) Lively , lusty .
• English - Anagrams: NCTA
• English - Etymology: Etymology 1. From Latin cantō , probably via Old Northern French canter (“sing, tell”). Doublet of chant . 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 . Etymology 3. Unknown, but compare Provençal…