Library / English Dictionary

CANT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Two surfaces meeting at an angle different from 90 degrees

Synonyms:

bevel; cant; chamfer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("cant" is a kind of...):

edge (a sharp side formed by the intersection of two surfaces of an object)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cant"):

splay (an outward bevel around a door or window that makes it seem larger)

Derivation:

cant (heel over)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Stock phrases that have become nonsense through endless repetition

Synonyms:

buzzword; cant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("cant" is a kind of...):

bunk; hokum; meaninglessness; nonsense; nonsensicality (a message that seems to convey no meaning)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Insincere talk about religion or morals

Synonyms:

cant; pious platitude

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("cant" is a kind of...):

talk; talking (an exchange of ideas via conversation)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves)

Example:

they don't speak our lingo

Synonyms:

argot; cant; jargon; lingo; patois; slang; vernacular

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("cant" is a kind of...):

non-standard speech (speech that differs from the usual accepted, easily recognizable speech of native adult members of a speech community)

Domain member usage:

Boche; Hun; Jerry; Kraut; Krauthead (offensive term for a person of German descent)

juice (energetic vitality)

skinful (a quantity of alcoholic drink sufficient to make you drunk)

key (a kilogram of a narcotic drug)

big bucks; big money; bundle; megabucks; pile (a large sum of money (especially as pay or profit))

juice (electric current)

wog ((offensive British slang) term used by the British to refer to people of color from Africa or Asia)

airhead (a flighty scatterbrained simpleton)

bad egg ((old-fashioned slang) a bad person)

tripper ((slang) someone who has taken a psychedelic drug and is undergoing hallucinations)

suit ((slang) a businessman dressed in a business suit)

squeeze ((slang) a person's girlfriend or boyfriend)

schlockmeister; shlockmeister ((slang) a merchant who deals in shoddy or inferior merchandise)

out-and-outer (someone who is excellent at something)

old man ((slang) boss)

guvnor ((British slang) boss)

good egg ((old-fashioned slang) a good person)

butch; dike; dyke ((slang) offensive term for a lesbian who is noticeably masculine)

boffin ((British slang) a scientist or technician engaged in military research)

drop-dead (extremely)

clean; plum; plumb (completely; used as intensifiers)

slam-bang (violent and sudden and noisy)

pint-size; pint-sized; runty; sawed-off; sawn-off (well below average height)

bolshy; stroppy (obstreperous)

mean (excellent)

some (remarkable)

grotty (very unpleasant or offensive)

butch ((of male or female homosexuals) characterized by stereotypically male traits or appearance)

uncool ((spoken slang) unfashionable and boring)

freaky (strange and somewhat frightening)

can-do (marked by a willingness to tackle a job and get it done)

besotted; blind drunk; blotto; cockeyed; crocked; fuddled; loaded; pie-eyed; pissed; pixilated; plastered; slopped; sloshed; smashed; soaked; soused; sozzled; squiffy; stiff; tight; wet (very drunk)

square; straight (rigidly conventional or old-fashioned)

bunk off; play hooky (play truant from work or school)

chuck; ditch (throw away)

hoof (dance in a professional capacity)

feel (pass one's hands over the sexual organs of)

buy it; pip out (be killed or die)

give (occur)

bitch (an unpleasant difficulty)

heebie-jeebies; jitters; screaming meemies (extreme nervousness)

the shits; the trots (obscene terms for diarrhea)

arse; arsehole; asshole; bunghole (vulgar slang for anus)

soup-strainer; toothbrush (slang for a mustache)

legs (staying power)

cert (an absolute certainty)

dreck; schlock; shlock (merchandise that is shoddy or inferior)

nick ((British slang) a prison)

Mickey Finn (slang term for knockout drops)

gat; rod (a gangster's pistol)

deck (street name for a packet of illegal drugs)

caff (informal British term for a cafe)

shakedown (a very thorough search of a person or a place)

square-bashing (drill on a barracks square)

dekko (British slang for a look)

hand job; jacking off; jerking off; wank (slang for masturbation)

blowjob; cock sucking (slang for fellatio)

ass; fuck; fucking; nookie; nooky; piece of ass; piece of tail; roll in the hay; screw; screwing; shag; shtup (slang for sexual intercourse)

power trip ((slang) a self-aggrandizing action undertaken simply for the pleasure of exercising control over other people)

shakedown (extortion of money (as by blackmail))

heist; rip-off (the act of stealing)

swiz (British slang for a swindle)

bite (a portion removed from the whole)

spic; spick; spik ((ethnic slur) offensive term for persons of Latin American descent)

Jap; Nip ((offensive slang) offensive term for a person of Japanese descent)

dago; ginzo; greaseball; Guinea; wop ((ethnic slur) offensive term for a person of Italian descent)

Chinaman; chink ((ethnic slur) offensive term for a person of Chinese descent)

hymie; kike; sheeny; yid ((ethnic slur) offensive term for a Jew)

Injun; red man; Redskin ((slang) offensive term for Native Americans)

honkey; honkie; honky; whitey ((slang) offensive names for a White man)

poor white trash; white trash ((slang) an offensive term for White people who are impoverished)

'hood; hood ((slang) a neighborhood)

nosh-up (a large satisfying meal)

burnup (a high-speed motorcycle race on a public road)

bun-fight; bunfight ((Briticism) a grand formal party on an important occasion)

dibs (a claim of rights)

skin flick (a pornographic movie)

applesauce; codswallop; folderol; rubbish; trash; tripe; trumpery; wish-wash (nonsensical talk or writing)

baloney; bilgewater; boloney; bosh; drool; humbug; taradiddle; tarradiddle; tommyrot; tosh; twaddle (pretentious or silly talk or writing)

hooey; poppycock; stuff; stuff and nonsense (senseless talk)

corker ((dated slang) a remarkable or excellent thing or person)

niff; pong (an unpleasant smell)

bay window; corporation; pot; potbelly; tummy (slang for a paunch)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cant"):

street name (slang for something (especially for an illegal drug))

rhyming slang (slang that replaces words with rhyming words or expressions and then typically omits the rhyming component)

Sense 5

Meaning:

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

Synonyms:

bank; camber; cant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("cant" is a kind of...):

incline; side; slope (an elevated geological formation)

Derivation:

cant (heel over)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Heel over

Example:

The ceiling is slanting

Synonyms:

cant; cant over; pitch; slant; tilt

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "cant" is one way to...):

move (move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "cant"):

cock (tilt or slant to one side)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

cant (two surfaces meeting at an angle different from 90 degrees)

cant (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)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The sudden canting of the ship had made the deck no place for running on; I had to find some new way of escape, and that upon the instant, for my foe was almost touching me.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Well, while things stood thus, suddenly the HISPANIOLA struck, staggered, ground for an instant in the sand, and then, swift as a blow, canted over to the port side till the deck stood at an angle of forty-five degrees and about a puncheon of water splashed into the scupper holes and lay, in a pool, between the deck and bulwark.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)