(more commonly horse-chanting), verbal subs. (common).—1. Tricking into the purchase of unsound or vicious horses.
1825. C. M. WESTMACOTT, The English Spy, vol. I., pp. 190, 200. The servant was a confederate, and the whole affair nothing more than a true orthodox farce of HORSE CHAUNTING, got up for the express purpose of raising a temporary supply.
1870–2. Gallery of Comicalities.
| If I have got an ’orse to sell, | |
| You’ll never find that Dick is wanting; | |
| There’s few that try it on so well, | |
| Or beat me at a bit of CHAUNTING. |
2. (vagrants’).—Street ballad-singing.
1851. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, I., p. 297. There is a class of ballads, which may with perfect propriety be called street ballads, as they are written by street authors for street singing (or CHAUNTING) and street sale.
1883. Daily Telegraph, Feb. 8, p. 3, col. 1. ‘The bitterest sort of weather is their [cadgers’] weather, and it doesn’t matter if it’s house-to-house work or CHANTING, or mud-plunging, it’s cold work.’
