[See CANT sb.3 It is not certain whether the vb. or the sb. came first.]
I. 1. intr. To speak in the whining or sing-song tone used by beggars; to beg.
1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), 34. ‘It shall be lawefull for the to Cant’—that is, to aske or begge—‘for thy living in al places.’
1612. Beaum. & Fl., Cupid’s Rev., IV. 418. The cunning’st rankest rogue that ever Canted.
1687. Congreve, Old Bach., III. vi. (1693), 22. Thy Master is but a Mumper in Love, lies Canting at the Gate, but never dare presume to enter the House.
1750. Johnson, Rambl., No. 171, ¶ 10. [He] bad me cant and whine in some other place.
2. intr. To speak in the peculiar jargon or ‘cant’ of vagabonds, thieves, and the like.
1608. Dekker, Lanth. & Candle-lt., B iij. He that in such assemblies can Cant best, is counted the best Musitian.
1652. Gaule, Magastrom., To Rdr. He cannot tell how to cant with him [a gypsie] exactly in his own foysting gibborish.
c. 1652. H. More, in R. Ward, Life (1710), 307. I don’t deny but that may sooner teach a Man to Cant and talk Gibberish.
1708. Kersey, Cant, to talk darkly, after the manner of Thieves, Beggars, &c.
1721–1800. in Bailey.
b. Slang and dial. To speak, talk; in Sc. (see quot. 1788).
1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), 84. The vpright Cofe canteth to the Roge.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Cant, to speak.
1713. Ramsay, Elegy Maggy Johnstoun. Of auld stories we did cant.
1726. Ayliffe, Parerg., 309. Tho’ it cants or speaks in another manner.
1788. Picken, Poems, Gloss., Cant, to tell merry old stories.
c. trans. To speak or utter in a cant way.
1592. Greene, Def. Coneycatch. (1859), 5. To heare a pesant cant the wordes of art belonging to our trade.
1631. Brathwait, Whimzies, Wine-soaker, 169. Which sackes his Capitall, makes his tongue cant broken English.
1633. Shirley, Gamesters, III. iii. Canting broken Dutch for farthings.
† 3. intr. To use the special phraseology or jargon of a particular class or subject. ? Obs.
1625. B. Jonson, Staple of N., IV. iv. (1631), 59 When my Muster-Master Talkes of his Tacticks, and his Rankes, and Files.… Doth not he cant? Ibid. Thou canst cant too. Pic. In all the languages in Westminster-Hall, Pleas, Bench, or Chancery, Fee-Farme, Fee-Tayle, Tennant in dower, [etc.].
1688. Miége, Gt. Fr. Dict., Cant, to speak a canting Language, to have an affected peculiar kind of Speech.
1698. Norris, Pract. Disc., 262. The Quakers … only Cant in some loose general Expressions about the Light.
† 4. To say or exclaim in the pet phraseology of the day, to use the phrases currently affected at the time. Also, To cant it: to phrase it in the cant of the period. Obs.
1648. Jenkyn, Blind Guide, i. 6. I see no other import or tendency (as he cants it) in this his foolish pamphlet.
1660. S. Ford, Loyal Subject’s Exult., 13. The Sovereign Authority of the People (as our Times have learned to cant it).
1669. W. Simpson, Hydrol. Chym., 24. Those … which they so much cant to be drying decoctions.
1710. Sir J. St. Leger, Managers Pro & Con, in Somers, Tracts, Ser. IV. (1751), III. 242. To set right (as they cant) the … Youth of the University.
a. 1716. South, 12 Serm. (1744), II. 64. There was thirty years more generation-work (as they canted it) cut out for him.
5. To affect the conventional phraseology of a school, party or subject.
1728. Young, Love Fame, VI. (1757), 155. Let them cant on, since they have got the knack, And dress their notions, like themselves, in black.
1784. Johnson, in Boswell (1887), IV. 308–9. Don’t cant in defence of savages.
1802. Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. xiv. 114. Who cants about the pre-eminence of mind.
1866. Carlyle, Remin., II. 215. A paltry print then much canted of.
1870. Lowell, Among my Bks., Ser. I. (1873), 340. Lessing … knew the classics, and did not merely cant about them.
6. spec. To affect religious or pietistic phraseology, esp. as a matter of fashion or profession; to talk unreally or hypocritically with an affectation of goodness or piety.
1678. Butler, Hud., III. II. 138/765.
| And till they first began to Cant, | |
| And Sprinkle down the Covenant. |
1778. Johnson, in Boswell, 12 April. He [Dr. Dodd] may have composed this prayer then. A man who has been canting all his life, may cant to the last.
1813. Scott, Rokeby, I. xviii. I could not cant of creed or prayer.
1851. Kingsley, Yeast, xi. (1853), 189. In Christian England Where they cant of a Saviour’s name, And yet waste men’s lives like vermin’s.
1856. R. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), II. VIII. ix. 102. Those dreamers who … cant about general brotherhood which exempts them from particular charity.
7. trans. (in senses 5, 6.)
1641. M. Frank, Serm. Transfig. (1672), 514. To set up King Jesus; a phrase much canted.
1676. Marvell, Mr. Smirke, I iij. Shall any sort of men presume to … force every man to Cant after them what it is not lawful for any man to utter?
1761. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, III. xii. 60. Of all the cants which are canted in this canting world … the cant of criticism is the most tormenting.
1825. Edin. Rev., XLII. 355. He may cant out his panegyricks.
1843. Macaulay, in Life & Lett. (1880), II. 146. I have heard the same cant canted about a much finer building.
8. dial. (See quots.)
1877. E. Peacock, N. W. Linc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Cant, to deceive by pious pretences, to impose upon.
1881. Evans, Leicestersh. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Cant, to wheedle; coax; humour. ]The pony ’ll be quiet enough when he’s been canted a bit.’
II. † 9. trans. To chant, sing; to repeat in a sing-song manner, intone. Obs.
1652. Gaule, Magastrom., 24. Who is an Inchanter? A Sooth-singer, by canting numbers: or a Sooth-sayer, by calculating numbers.
1705. Hickeringill, Priest-cr., II. iii. 35. Singing Men and singing Boys, that instead of rehearsing the Creed, cant it, like the Tune called the Mock-Nightingale.
† 10. intr. To chant, sing. Sc. or dial. ? Obs.
1768. Ross, Helenore, 59 (Jam.). The birdies … Canting fu’ cheerful.
