Ant vs Cant - What's the difference?
ant | cant |
Any of various insects in the family Formicidae in the order Hymenoptera, typically living in large colonies composed almost entirely of flightless females.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-26, author=
, volume=189, issue=7, page=32, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= (label) A Web spider.
(ornithology) To rub insects, especially , on one's body, perhaps to control parasites or clean feathers.
* {{quote-journal, date = 1974
, coauthors = Potter, Eloise and Hauser, Doris
, title = Relationship of anting and sunbathing to molting in wild birds
, journal = The Auk
, volume = 91
, url = http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v091n03/p0537-p0563.pdf
, page = 538
, passage = Wild birds tend to ant and sunbathe most frequently during periods of high humidity, particularly right after heavy or prolonged rainfall in summer.
}}
(countable) An argot, the jargon of a particular class or subgroup.
* 1836 , Three discourses preached before the Congregational Society in Watertown,
(countable, uncountable) A private or secret language used by a religious sect, gang, or other group.
Shelta.
(uncountable, pejorative) Empty, hypocritical talk.
* 1749 , , Book IV ch iv
* 1759-1770 ,
(uncountable) Whining speech, such as that used by beggars.
(countable, heraldry) A blazon of a coat of arms that makes a pun upon the name of the bearer, canting arms.
(obsolete) A call for bidders at a public fair; an auction.
* Jonathan Swift
To speak with the jargon of a class or subgroup.
* Ben Jonson
* Bishop Sanderson
To speak in set phrases.
To preach in a singsong fashion, especially in a false or empty manner.
* Beaumont and Fletcher
(heraldry) Of a blazon, to make a pun that references the bearer of a coat of arms.
(obsolete) To sell by auction, or bid at an auction.
(obsolete) corner, niche
* Ben Jonson
slope, the angle at which something is set.
*
An outer or external angle.
An inclination from a horizontal or vertical line; a slope or bevel; a tilt.
A movement or throw that overturns something.
* 1830 , The Edinburgh Encyclopedia, volume 3,
A sudden thrust, push, kick, or other impulse, producing a bias or change of direction; also, the bias or turn so give.
(coopering) A segment forming a side piece in the head of a cask.
A segment of the rim of a wooden cogwheel.
(nautical) A piece of wood laid upon the deck of a vessel to support the bulkheads.
To set (something) at an angle.
To give a sudden turn or new direction to.
To bevel an edge or corner.
To overturn so that the contents are emptied.
(British, dialect) lively, lusty.
As nouns the difference between ant and cant
is that ant is any of various insects in the family Formicidae in the order Hymenoptera, typically living in large colonies composed almost entirely of flightless females while cant is an argot, the jargon of a particular class or subgroup.As verbs the difference between ant and cant
is that ant is to rub insects, especially ants, on one's body, perhaps to control parasites or clean feathers while cant is to speak with the jargon of a class or subgroup.As a proper noun Ant
is a diminutive of the male given name Anthony.As an adjective cant is
lively, lusty.ant
English
(wikipedia ant)Alternative forms
* ante, ampteNoun
(en noun)Nick Miroff
Mexico gets a taste for eating insects […], passage=The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard-to-find critters […]. But the priciest items in the market aren't the armadillo steaks or even the bluefin tuna. That would be the frozen chicatanas – giant winged ants – at around $500 a kilo.}}
Synonyms
* (insect) emmet (archaic), pismire (archaic)Hyponyms
* (insect in Formicidae) army ant, black garden ant, bull ant, carpenter ant, fire ant, garden ant, honey-pot ant, leafcutter ant, pharaoh ant, piss ant, red ant, sauba ant, thief ant, wood antDerived terms
* antbear * ant beetle * antbird * ant cap * anteater * anthill * anting * antlike * antlion * antly * the ant's pants * ants in one's pants * antshrike * velvet ant * white antSee also
* ant- (prefix ) * -ant (suffix ) * * army * bike * colony * nest *Verb
(en verb)Anagrams
* ----cant
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) , cognate with chant.Noun
(en-noun)- He had the look of a prince, but the cant of a fishmonger.
page 65
- I am aware that the phrase free inquiry has become too much a cant phrase soiled by the handling of the ignorant and the reckless by those who fall into the mistake of supposing that religion has its root in the understanding and by those who can see just far enough to doubt and no further.
- People claim to care about the poor of Africa, but it is largely cant .
- He is too well grounded for all your philosophical cant to hurt.
- 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!
- To sell their leases by cant .
Synonyms
* (private or secret language) argot, jargon, slang * (musical singing) chant, singsongVerb
(en verb)- The doctor here, / When he discourseth of dissection, / Of vena cava and of vena porta, / The meseraeum and the mesentericum, / What does he else but cant ?
- that uncouth affected garb of speech, or canting language, if I may so call it
- the rankest rogue that ever canted
- (Jonathan Swift)
Etymology 2
Noun
(en noun)- The first and principal person in the temple was Irene, or Peace; she was placed aloft in a cant .
- Owing to the cant of the vessel, the masts hung far out over the water, and from my perch on the cross-trees I had nothing below me but the surface of the bay.
- (Totten)
page 621
- It is not only of great service in keeping the boat in her due position on the sea, but also in creating a tendency immediately to recover from any sudden cant , or lurch, from a heavy wave; and it is besides beneficial in diminishing the violence of beating against the sides of the vessel which she may go to relieve.
- to give a ball a cant
- (Knight)
- (Knight)
Verb
(en verb)- to cant''' a cask; to '''cant a ship
- to cant''' round a stick of timber; to '''cant a football