Cane vs Cant - What's the difference?
cane | cant |
To do with a plant with simple stems, like bamboo or sugar cane.
# (uncountable) The slender, flexible main stem of a plant such as bamboo, including many species in the grass family Gramineae.
# (uncountable) The plant itself, including many species in the grass family Gramineae; a reed.
# (uncountable) Sugar cane.
#* {{quote-book, year=1907, author=
, chapter=7, title= # (US, Southern) Maize or, rarely, sorghum, when such plants are processed to make molasses (treacle) or sugar.
The stem of such a plant adapted for use as a tool.
# (countable) A short rod or stick, traditionally of wood or bamboo, used for corporal punishment.
# (uncountable) Corporal punishment by beating with a cane.
# A lance or dart made of cane.
#* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
A rod-shaped tool or device, somewhat like a cane.
# (countable) A strong short staff used for support or decoration during walking; a walking stick.
#* {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
, title=
, chapter=2 #* , chapter=10
, title= # (countable, glassblowing) A length of colored and/or patterned glass rod, used in the specific glassblowing technique called caneworking.
# (countable) A long rod often collapsible and commonly white (for visibility to other persons), used by vision impaired persons for guidance in determining their course and for probing for obstacles in their path.
(uncountable) Split rattan, as used in wickerwork, basketry and the like.
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
, chapter=1, title= A local European measure of length; the canna.
To strike or beat with a cane or similar implement.
(British, New Zealand, slang) To destroy.
(British, New Zealand, slang) To do something well, in a competent fashion.
(UK, slang, intransitive) To produce extreme pain.
To make or furnish with cane or rattan.
(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.
In uncountable terms the difference between cane and cant
is that cane is split rattan, as used in wickerwork, basketry and the like while cant is whining speech, such as that used by beggars.In countable terms the difference between cane and cant
is that cane is a long rod often collapsible and commonly white (for visibility to other persons), used by vision impaired persons for guidance in determining their course and for probing for obstacles in their path while cant is an argot, the jargon of a particular class or subgroup.In transitive terms the difference between cane and cant
is that cane is to make or furnish with cane or rattan while cant is to divide or parcel out.As nouns the difference between cane and cant
is that cane is to do with a plant with simple stems, like bamboo or sugar cane while cant is an argot, the jargon of a particular class or subgroup.As verbs the difference between cane and cant
is that cane is to strike or beat with a cane or similar implement while cant is to speak with the jargon of a class or subgroup.As a proper noun CanE
is abbreviation of Canadian English|lang=en.As an adjective cant is
lively, lusty.cane
English
Noun
The Dust of Conflict, passage=Still, a dozen men with rifles, and cartridges to match, stayed behind when they filed through a white aldea lying silent amid the cane , and the Sin Verguenza swung into slightly quicker stride.}}
- Judgelike thou sitt'st, to praise or to arraign / The flying skirmish of the darted cane .
citation, passage=The cane was undoubtedly of foreign make, for it had a solid silver ferrule at one end, which was not English hall–marked.}}
Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=Men that I knew around Wapatomac didn't wear high, shiny plug hats, nor yeller spring overcoats, nor carry canes with ivory heads as big as a catboat's anchor, as you might say.}}
The China Governess, passage=The half-dozen pieces […] were painted white and carved with festoons of flowers, birds and cupids. […] The bed was the most extravagant piece. Its graceful cane halftester rose high towards the cornice and was so festooned in carved white wood that the effect was positively insecure, as if the great couch were trimmed with icing sugar.}}
Synonyms
* (the slender flexible stem of a plant such as bamboo) stem, stalk; (of a tree) trunk * (the plant itself) reed * (sugar cane) molasses cane * switch, rod * (corporal punishment by beating with a cane) the cane, a caning, six of the best, whipping, cuts * (strong short staff used for support during walking) staff, walking stick * (a long rod often collapsible) white cane, blind man's caneDerived terms
* bamboo cane * blind man's cane * cane knife * cane rat * cane sugar * cane toad * caneworking * floricane * primocane * sugar cane * walking cane * white caneVerb
(can)- Don't hit me with that. It really canes !
- Mate, my legs cane !
- to cane chairs
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
