Want vs Cant - What's the difference?
want | cant |
To wish for or to desire (something).
* , chapter=13
, title= * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=(Henry Petroski)
, title=
* Dryden
To lack, not to have (something).
*, II.3.7:
* James Merrick
* Addison
(colloquially with verbal noun as object) To be in need of; to require (something).
* 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) Chapter 2
(dated) To be in a state of destitution; to be needy; to lack.
* Ben Jonson
* Alexander Pope
(countable) A desire, wish, longing.
(countable, often, followed by of) Lack, absence.
* , King Henry VI Part 2 , act 4, sc. 8:
* :
(uncountable) Poverty.
* Jonathan Swift
Something needed or desired; a thing of which the loss is felt.
* Paley
(UK, mining) A depression in coal strata, hollowed out before the subsequent deposition took place.
(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 transitive terms the difference between want and cant
is that want is to lack, not to have (something) while cant is to divide or parcel out.In countable terms the difference between want and cant
is that want is a desire, wish, longing while cant is an argot, the jargon of a particular class or subgroup.In uncountable terms the difference between want and cant
is that want is poverty while cant is whining speech, such as that used by beggars.As a proper noun Want
is a personification of want.As an adjective cant is
lively, lusty.want
English
Alternative forms
* waunt (obsolete)Verb
(en verb)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes. He said that if you wanted to do anything for them, you must rule them, not pamper them. Soft heartedness caused more harm than good.}}
Geothermal Energy, volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.}}
- The disposition, the manners, and the thoughts are all before it; where any of those are wanting' or imperfect, so much ' wants or is imperfect in the imitation of human life.
- he that hath skill to be a pilot wants' a ship; and he that could govern a commonwealth' wants means to exercise his worth, hath not a poor office to manage.
- Not what we wish, but what we want , / Oh, let thy grace supply!
- I observed that your whip wanted a lash to it.
- The mowing-machine always wanted oiling. Barnet turned it under Jacob's window, and it creaked—creaked, and rattled across the lawn and creaked again.
- You have a gift, sir (thank your education), / Will never let you want .
- For as in bodies, thus in souls, we find / What wants in blood and spirits, swelled with wind.
Usage notes
* This is a catenative verb. SeeSynonyms
* (desire) set one's heart on, wish for, would like * (lack) be without * (require) need, be in need ofDerived terms
* I want to know * want-away * wanted * want for * wanting *Noun
(poverty)- [H]eavens and honour be witness, that no want of resolution in me, but only my followers' base and ignominious treasons, makes me betake me to my heels.
- For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
- For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
- For want of a horse the rider was lost.
- For want of a rider the battle was lost.
- For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
- And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
- Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches, as to conceive how others can be in want .
- Habitual superfluities become actual wants .
Derived terms
* want adReferences
Statistics
*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