cant

Multiple Entries:
  cant    Cant.    can't  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
cant1 /kant/

▶noun

• 1 hypocritical and sanctimonious talk.

• 2 derogatory language peculiar to a specified group: thieves' cant.

  ■ [as modifier] denoting a phrase or catchword temporarily current.

▶verb dated talk hypocritically and sanctimoniously.

– origin C16 (in sense ‘singing’, later ‘whining speech’, as of a beggar), hence ‘jargon’: prob. from L. cantare (see chant).

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
cant2 /kant/

▶verb be or cause to be in a slanting or oblique position; tilt.

■ (of a ship) swing round.

▶noun a slope or tilt.

– origin ME (denoting an edge or brink): from Mid. Low Ger. kant, kante, MDu. cant, ‘point, side, edge’, rel. to med. L. cantus ‘corner, side’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
Cant.

▶abbreviation Canticles (the Song of Songs) (in biblical references).

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
can't/kɑːnt/

▶contraction cannot.