canopy 
that serves as a protection or shelter, as an 
awning, the tester of a bed, or the like; espe- 
cially, an ornamental covering of cloth suspend- 
ed on posts over a throne or the seat of a high 
dignitary, or any covering of cloth so disposed. 
He was escorted by the military of the city under a 
royal canopy borne by the deputies. 
Prescott, Ferd. and Isa., ii. 12. 
2. In specific figurative use, the sky : as, any- 
where under the canopy, or the canopy of heaven. 
But, of what substance shall I, after thee 
(0 Matchless Maker), make Heav'ns Canapey? 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas, Weeks, 1. 2. 
And now 
The forest's solemn canofnes were changed 
For the uniform and lightsome evening sky. 
Shelley, Alastor. 
8. In arch., a decorative hood or cover sup- 
ported or sus- 
pended over an 
altar, throne, 
chair of state, 
pulpit, and the 
like; also the or- 
namented pro- 
jecting head of 
a niche or taber- 
nacle. The label- 
molding or drip- 
stone which sur- 
rounds the head of 
a door or window, 
if ornamented, is 
also called a can- 
opy. 
4. Ncmt.: (a) 
A light awning 
over the stern- 
sheets of a boat. 
(6) The brass 
framework over 
a hatch. 5. A 
large smoke- 
bell. See smoke- 
bell. Car-Build- canopy. 
Cr*8 DiCt Portal of the church of St. Pere-sous-Veze- 
,1 , - lay, France. ( From Viollet-le-Duc's " Diet. 
Canopy (kan O- del 1 Architecture.") 
pi), v. t.; pret. 
and pp. canopied, ppr. canopying. [< canopy, .] 
To cover with a canopy, or as with a canopy. 
Trees . . . 
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd. 
Shah., Sonnets, xii. 
Canopied with golden clouds. Chapman, Iliad, xiii. 
A bank 
With ivy canopied. Milton, Comus, 1. 544. 
Beneath thy pinions canopy my head. Keats. 
canorae (ka-no're), n. pi. [NL., fern. pi. (sc. 
aves, birds : see A res) of L. canorus : see cano- 
rous."] The singing birds. See Cantatores and 
Cantores. 
canorous (ka-no'rus), a. [< L. canorus, sing- 
ing, musical, < canere, sing: see ca< 2 .] Mu- 
sical; tuneful. [Rare.] 
Birds that are canorous ... are of little throats and 
short necks. Sir T. Browne, Vulg. Err., vii. 14. 
The Latin has given us most of our canorous words, only 
they must not be confounded with merely sonorous ones, 
still less with phrases that, instead of supplementing the 
sense, encumber it. 
Lowell, Among my Books, 1st ser., p. 75. 
canorously (ka-no'rus-li), adv. Melodiously; 
tunefully. 
canorousness (ka-no'rus-nes), n. Musicalness. 
Spenser . . . chooses his language for its rich canorous- 
ness rather than for intensity of meaning. 
Lowell, Among my Books, 2d ser., p. 184. 
canoust, a. [< L. canus, white, hoary, esp. of 
the gray hair of the aged.] Hoary; gray. 
cansh (kansh), n. A small mow of corn, or a 
small pile of fagots, etc. HalHwell. [Prov. 
Eng.] 
canstickt (kan'stik), . A contraction of can- 
dlestick. 
I had rather hear a brazen canstick turn'd. 
Shak., 1 Hen. IV., iii. 1. 
canstowt. An old abbreviation of canst thou. 
cant 1 (kant), . [= D. kant, border, edge, side, 
brink, margin, corner, = OFries. kant (in 
comp.), side, = MLG. kant, kante, LG. kante (> 
G. kante = mod. Icel. kantr = Dan. Sw. kant), 
border, edge, margin, prob. < OF. cant, corner, 
angle, = Sp. Pg. It. canto, side, edge, corner, 
angle, < ML. cantus, side, corner. Of uncertain 
and prob. various origin: (1) in part, like W. 
cant, the rim of a circle, < L. canthits, ML. can- 
tus, coHtus, the tire of a wheel (in ML. also 
explained as the nave or spokes of a wheel, in 
L. also poet, a wheel) ; cf . Gr. KaMc,, the felly 
of a wheel (a late word, perhaps due to the L., 
which was, according to Quintilian, a barbarous 
796 
Hispanian or African word) ; (2) cf. Gr. Kav06f, 
thecorneroftheeye(seecrt(/f.s-); (3) cf.OBulg. 
l;a n tu = Bulg. kiit = Sloven. k6t = Serv. ktit = 
Bohem. koitt = Pol. ka n t = Russ. kutil = Lett. 
kante, a corner. In some senses the noun is 
from the verb. Hence, cantle, canton*.] If. 
A corner; an angle; a niche 
The . . . principal person in the temple was Irene or 
Peace ; she was placed aloft in a cant. 
B. Jonfon, Coronation Entertainment. 
2. The corner of a field. 3. An external or 
salient angle : as, a six-canted bolt, that is, one 
of six cants, or of which the head has six angles. 
4. One of the segments forming a side piece 
in the head of a cask. 5. A ship's timber, 
near the bow or stern, lying obliquely to the 
line of the keel. 6. A piece of wood which 
supports the bulkheads on a vessel's deck. 
[Eng.] 7. A log that has received two side 
cuts in a sawmill and is ready for the next cut. 
8. An inclination from a horizontal line; a 
sloping, slanting, or tilted position. 
When the berg first came in contact with the ship, a 
large tongue of ice below the water was forced under the 
bows of the vessel, raising her somewhat, and with the 
help of the wind giving her a cant. 
C. F. Ball, Polar Exp., p. 245. 
9. A toss, thrust, or push with a sudden jerk : 
as, to give a ball a cant. 10. In whale-fishing, 
a cut in a whale between the neck and fins. 
E. D. 
cant 1 (kant), '. [= D. kanten, cut off an angle, 
square, = G. kaitten, cant, tilt, = Sw. kanta, 
bevel, = LG. freq. kanteln, kantern, turn over, 
tilt, af-kanteln, cut off an angle, = Dan. kamtre, 
upset, capsize, cant; from the noun.] I. trans. 
1. To put or set at an angle ; tilt or move from 
a horizontal line : as, to cant or cant up a plank ; 
to cant over a pail or cask. 2. Naut., to turn 
(something) so that it is no longer fair and 
square ; give (a ship) an inclination to one side, 
as in preparing her to be careened. 3. To set 
upon edge, as a stone. 4. To throw with a 
sudden jerk ; toss : as, to cant a ball. 
The sheltie canted its rider into the little brook. 
Scott, Pirate. 
5. To cut off an angle of, as of a square piece 
of timber. 
II. intrans. To tilt or incline ; have a slant. 
The table is made to cant as usual, being clamped in 
position by a nut screwed up against a quadrant under- 
neath. Ure, Diet., IV. 963. 
cant 2 (kant), v. [First at the end of the IGth 
century; usually referred to L. cantare (> ult. 
E. chant, q. v.), sing (in form a freq. of canere, 
pp. cantus, sing, from a root represented in E. 
by the noun hen, q. y.), in eecl. use (ML.) also 
perform mass or divine service, and, as a noun, 
an anniversary service for the dead, alms, esp. 
when given as an anniversary observance (see 
can t 2 , n. and a.). The word cant may thus have 
become associated with beggars ; but there may 
have been also an allusion to a perfunctory 
performance of divine service, and hence a hy- 
pocritical use of religious phrases.] I. intrans. 
1. To speak with a whining voice or in an 
affected or assumed tone ; assume a particular 
tone and manner of speaking for the purpose 
of exciting compassion, as in begging; hence, 
to beg. 
You are resolved to cant, then ? where, Savil, 
Shall your scene lie ? 
Beau, and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 3. 
2. To make Pharisaical, hypocritical, or whin- 
ing pretensions to goodness; affect piety with- 
out sincerity ; sham holiness. 
I could not cant of creed or prayer. 
Scott, Rokeby, L 18. 
3. To talk in a certain special jargon ; use the 
words and phraseology peculiar to a particular 
sect, party, profession, and the like. 
A merry Greek, and cants in Latin comely. 
B. Jonson, New Inn, it 2. 
The Doctor here, 
When he discourseth of dissection, 
Of vena cava and of vena porta, 
Of miseraics and the mesenterium, 
What does he else but cant? 
B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1. 
II. trans. To use as a conventional phrase- 
ology or jargon. 
Is it so difficult for a man to cant some one or more of the 
good old English cants which his father and grandfather 
canted before him, that he must learn, in the schools of 
the Utilitarians, a new sleight of tongue, to make fools 
clap and wise men sneer? 
Macaulay, On West. Reviewer's Def. of Mill. 
cant 2 (kant), n. and a. [< cant*, v.] I. n. 1. 
A whining or singing manner of speech ; spe- 
Cantab. 
cifically, the whining speech of beggars, as in 
asking alms. 2. The language or jargon 
spoken by gipsies, thieves, professional beg- 
gars, or the like, and containing many words 
different from ordinary Euglieh ; a kind of slang 
or argot. 3. The words and phrases peculiar 
to or characteristic of a sect, party, or profes- 
sion ; the dialect of a class, sect, or set of peo- 
ple : used in an unfavorable sense. 
Of all the cants which are canted in this canting world, 
though the cant of hypocrites may be the worst, the cant 
of criticism is the most tormenting. 
Sterne, Tristram Shandy, iii. 12. 
The cant of party, school, and sect 
Provoked at times his honest scorn. 
Whittier, My Namesake. 
4. A pretentious or insincere assumption, in 
speech, of a religious character; an ostenta- 
tious or insincere use of solemn or religious 
phraseology. 
That he [Richard Cromwell] was a good man, he evinced 
by proofs more satisfactory than deep groans or long ser- 
mons, by humility and suavity when he was at the height 
of human greatness, and by cheerful resignation under 
cruel wrongs and misfortunes ; but the cant then common 
in every guard-room gave him a disgust which he had not 
always the prudence to conceal. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., i. 
Supplied with cant the lack of Christian grace. 
Whittier, Daniel Neall. 
Hence 5. Any insincerity or conventionality 
in speech, especially insincere assumption or 
conventional 'pretense of enthusiasm for high 
thoughts or aims. 
But enthusiasm, once cold, can never be warmed over 
into anything better than cant. 
Lowell, Study Windows, p. 157. 
= Syn. 2 and 3. Cant, Slang, Colloquialism. Cant be- 
longs to a class ; xlamj to no one class, except where it is 
specified : as, college slang ; parliamentary nlang. Slang 
is generally over-vivid ill metaphor and threadbare from 
use, and is often vulgar or ungrainmatical ; cant may be 
correct, but unintelligible to those outside of the class 
concerned. Cant has also the meaning of insincere or 
conventional use of religious or other set phrases, as above: 
A colloquialism is simply an expression that belongs to 
common conversation, but is considered too homely for 
refined speech or for writing. 
The Cant or flash language, or thieves' Jargon, was scarce- 
ly known even by name in the United States until . . . 
some forty years ago. Science, V. 380. 
The use of elang, or cheap generic terms, as a substitute 
for differentiated specific expressions, is at once a sign 
and a cause of mental atrophy. 
0. W. Holmes, Old Vol. of Life, p. 275. 
Colloquialism have a place in certain departments of 
literature, namely, familiar and humorous writing, but in 
grave compositions they are objectionable. 
J. De Mille, Rhetoric, 270. 
II. a. Of the nature of cant or jargon. 
The affectation of some late authors to introduce and 
multiply cant words is the most ruinous corruption in any 
language. Swi/t. 
cant 3 (kant), n. [Said to be vagabonds' slang. 
Cf . ML. cantare, pi. cantaria, alms : see cant 2 , .] 
Something given in charity. Imp. Diet. 
cant 4 (kaut), n. [Short for OF. encant, F. en- 
can = Pr. enquant, encant = OSp. ecawte = It. 
i urn H to (ML. incantum, incantus, inquantus), an 
auction, orig. a call for bids at an auction, < L. 
in quantum, for how much? See quantum, 
quantity, etc.] An auction; sale by auction. 
Grose. [Prov. Eng.] 
Numbers of these tenants are now offering to sell their 
leases by cant. Swift, Hist. Eug., Wni. II. 
cant 4 (kant), v. t. [< cant*, n. Cf. equiv. ML. 
incantare, inquantare.~] 1. To sell by auction. 
Is it not the general method of landlords to ... cant 
their land to the highest bidder? 
Swift, Against the Bishops. 
2f. To enhance or increase, as by competitive 
bidding at an auction. [Prov. Eng. in both uses.] 
When two monks were outvying each other in canting 
the price of an abbey, he [William Rufus] observed a third 
at some distance, who said never a word : the king de- 
manded why he would not offer ; the monk said he was 
poor, and besides would give nothing if he were ever so 
rich ; the king replied, Then you are the fittest person to 
have it, and immediately gave it him. 
Swift, Hist. Eng., Wni. II. 
cant 5 (kant), a. [E. dial, and Sc., also canty; < 
ME. cant, kant, kaunt, bold, brave; origin ob- 
scure.] Bold; strong; hearty; lusty. Now 
usually canty (which see). 
And Nestor anon, with a nowmber grete 
Of knightes & cant men, cairyt him with 
Lyuely to his lunde, & leuyt hym noght. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 3573. 
The king of Berne was cant and kene, 
Bot there he left both play and pride. 
Mi'not. Poems, p. 30. 
cant 5 (kant), v. i. [E. dial., < canfi, .] To re- 
cover or mend ; grow strong. 
can't (kant or kant). A colloquial contraction 
of cannot. 
Cantab, (kan'tab). 1. An abbreviation of the 
Latin adjective Cantabrigiensis (see Cantabri- 
