CANT

cant, (1) (possibly through the fr. from lat. _cantos_, corner), in architecture, a term used where the corner of a square is cut off, octagonally or otherwise. thus a bay window, the sides of which are not parallel, or at right angles to the spectator, is said to be canted. (2) (from the lat. _cantare_, to sing, very early in use, in a depreciatory sense, of religious services), a word appearing in english in the 16th century 'for the whining speech of beggars; hence it is applied to thieves' or gipsies' jargon, to the peculiar language of any class or sect, to any current phrase or turn of language, and particularly to the hypocritical use of pious phraseology.