cant3 (kant)

[Said to be vagabonds' slang. Cf. ML.cant are, pl. cantar i a, alms: see cant2, c.] Something given in charity. Imp. Dict. cant4 (kant), n. [Short for OF. encant, F. en can = Pr. enquant, encant = OSp. encante = It. in can to (ML. in can tum, in cantus, in quant us ), an auction, orig. a call for bids at an auction, Numbers of these tenants are now offering to sell their leases by cant . Swift , Hist. Eng., Wm. II. cant4 (kant), v. t. [ incant are , in quant are .] 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. 2t. 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 demanded 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., Wm. II. cant5 (kant), a. [E. dial. and Sc., also canty ; cant , kant , kaunt , bold, brave; origin obscure.] 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 londe, & leuyt hym noght. Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), L. 8578. The king of Beme was cant and kene, Bot there he left both play and pride. Minot , Poems, p. 30. cover or mend; grow strong. can't (känt or kant). A colloquial contraction of cannot. Cantab. (kan'tab). 1. An abbreviation of the Latin adjective Cant a brig i ens is (see Cantabri Cantab. gian): as, John Jones, M. A. Cantab. (that is, Master of Arts of Cambridge University).-2. [As a noun.] A member or graduate of the University of Cambridge in England. The rattle-pated trick of a young cantab . Scott. Can tabs are sketched in a series of Academical portraits, and University life then was apparently much the same as it is now. Fortnightly Rev. , N. S., XL. 65. 3. [As an adjective.] Of or belonging to the University of Cambridge. How oft the Cantab supper, host and guest, Would echo helple laughter to your jest! Tennyson, To the Rev. W. H. Brook field. cantabank (kan'ta-bangk), n. [A pl. cant a banqui is cited in Hall i well; cant in banco (Florio), a mountebank, a ballad-singer, lit. one who sings on a bench, in , on, + banco , bench: see cant2, in1, bank2. Cf. mountebank , saltimbanco.] A strolling singer; a common ballad-singer: used in contempt. [Rare.] He was no tavern cantabank that made it, But a squire minstrel of your Highne ' court. Sir H. Taylor , Ph. van Artevelde, I., iii. 2.