From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcantcant1 /kænt/ noun [uncountable] 1 PRETENDinsincere talk about moral or religious principles by someone who is pretending to be better than they really are2 formalSL special words used by a particular group of people, especially in order to keep things secret SYN slang thieves’ cant
Examples from the Corpus
cant• If there was one thing that he hated fervently it was affectation and cant.• Along with that sound goes the overpowering stench of mendacity and cant.• His viewpoint is remarkably free of idealism or cant.• And yet their eyes, their lips, a certain shy grin or quizzical cant of an eyebrow, look strangely familiar.• Instantly, Penn establishes himself as an unsympathetic Satan, even before he starts his white-supremacist cant.• But what about the cant of usury and the mode of treating that he ought to know?• Their cant was not religious but phrenological.cantcant2 verb [intransitive, transitive] HORIZONTALto lean, or make something lean→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
cant• This city could reconfigure parts of itself, great vitrodur panels sliding smoothly, tilting, canting.• It maddened him and he canted athwart.• Grave Digger clears all the yellow cars, canting far to one side.• She was sitting down by the gate, one hand on her neck, her head canted over at a fierce angle.• The controls are canted toward the driver.Origin cant1 (1600-1700) cant “to speak, talk like a beggar trying to get money” ((16-18 centuries)), from Latin cantare; → CHANT1 