What's the difference between cant and descant?

Cant


Definition:

  • (n.) A corner; angle; niche.
  • (n.) An outer or external angle.
  • (n.) An inclination from a horizontal or vertical line; a slope or bevel; a titl.
  • (n.) A sudden thrust, push, kick, or other impulse, producing a bias or change of direction; also, the bias or turn so give; as, to give a ball a cant.
  • (n.) A segment forming a side piece in the head of a cask.
  • (n.) A segment of he rim of a wooden cogwheel.
  • (n.) A piece of wood laid upon the deck of a vessel to support the bulkheads.
  • (v. t.) To incline; to set at an angle; to tilt over; to tip upon the edge; as, to cant a cask; to cant a ship.
  • (v. t.) To give a sudden turn or new direction to; as, to cant round a stick of timber; to cant a football.
  • (v. t.) To cut off an angle from, as from a square piece of timber, or from the head of a bolt.
  • (n.) An affected, singsong mode of speaking.
  • (n.) The idioms and peculiarities of speech in any sect, class, or occupation.
  • (n.) The use of religious phraseology without understanding or sincerity; empty, solemn speech, implying what is not felt; hypocrisy.
  • (n.) Vulgar jargon; slang; the secret language spoker by gipsies, thieves, tramps, or beggars.
  • (a.) Of the nature of cant; affected; vulgar.
  • (v. i.) To speak in a whining voice, or an affected, singsong tone.
  • (v. i.) To make whining pretensions to goodness; to talk with an affectation of religion, philanthropy, etc.; to practice hypocrisy; as, a canting fanatic.
  • (v. i.) To use pretentious language, barbarous jargon, or technical terms; to talk with an affectation of learning.
  • (n.) A call for bidders at a public sale; an auction.
  • (v. t.) to sell by auction, or bid a price at a sale by auction.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Vince, too, prefers plain speaking to corporate cant – and is even willing to suggest that Tory householders should go elsewhere to buy their energy if they object to his stance.
  • (2) Bob Cant, editor of a 2008 book called Footsteps and Witnesses: Lesbian and Gay Lifestories from Scotland, says that when he was growing up in 1950s and 60s Scotland, the illegality of homosexual activity was “not a problem for me at all”.
  • (3) The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes of the cant of occlusal plane during and after orthodontic treatment.
  • (4) We have an obligation that we cant ignore something like this.” However, Katz later appeared to accept Spicer’s apology.
  • (5) I care, but I cant do enough so I’ll forget I care.
  • (6) Speaking a week after his youngest brother, Jaffar, 17 , was killed storming a Syrian government checkpoint, Deghayes said: “I cant afford to leave jihad and the journey to jannah [paradise].” Jaffar is the youngest known Briton to have died during the gruesome three-year conflict.
  • (7) The present study evaluated the ability of clofibrate to sensitize in situ a mouse carcinoma (CaNT) to radiation.
  • (8) October 1, 2013 Mark Knoller (@markknoller) The @ONDCP , the WH Office Office of Drug Policy says "we're sorry" but it cant respond to tweets and replies due to the shutdown.
  • (9) When I see footage of her fencing I cant believe what I see,” says Pinkhasov, a Russian immigrant who fenced himself both in the Soviet Union and in the US.
  • (10) Nicotinamide increased the radiation sensitivity of CaNT tumours under all three different oxygen concentrations tested (21, 95 and 100% oxygen).
  • (11) 1.43pm BST Your comments Paddyde 26 June 2014 12:24pm So Syngenta applies to have UK government ecotox experts review the data and make a judgment and the general opinion in the comments section is: " We cant let the scientists review the data and come to an informed opinion because it might not agree with ours.
  • (12) There are always compromises, and that nagging voice says ‘I cant do enough, so I may as well not try.’ Reading Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett’s response to Vivienne Westwood in the Guardian, ‘ Living ethically isn’t cheap, Vivienne ’, made my inner voice rear its ugly head again – she finishes with the words ‘people don’t seem to care … or don’t have the energy to care.
  • (13) The levels of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in the transplantable CaNT murine tumor grown in CBA mice at various times following 5, 10, and 15 Gy X rays (100 kVp) were increased within 45 min.
  • (14) Jonathan Franzen on his misanthropic reputation: 'We live in a world of cant' Read more While the novelist blamed himself for the incident, he admitted he also blamed Winfrey.
  • (15) What you get instead is the kind of cant served up by David Cameron at last year’s Conservative conference: “It’s not the government that creates jobs.
  • (16) #Israel #Jpost July 1, 2014 Ben Hartman (@Benhartman) Ofir talking about the courage he heard in his sons voice in the dispatch tape when he called to report he'd been kidnapped #Israel #Jpost July 1, 2014 Ben Hartman (@Benhartman) Ofir Shaer: What courage for someone who was not yet even 17 #Israel #Jpost July 1, 2014 Ben Hartman (@Benhartman) Ofir: I never pictured you'd become a hero of #Israel while still just a teen #Jpost July 1, 2014 Ben Hartman (@Benhartman) Gil-ad Shaers mother: I sit in your room and cant accept that our worst nightmare came true #Israel #Jpost July 1, 2014 2.08pm BST Israel claims its aerial bombardment of Gaza in the wake of the discovery of the bodies of the abducted teenagers was aimed at prevent further kidnappings, my colleague Matthew Weaver writes.
  • (17) He talked about its special, extra-white glass and how the canted surfaces would reflect the sky and produce "a nice light presence".
  • (18) Yen Manager: for choice we want lower libors...let the [Money Market] guys know pls Yen Trader 2: sure i am setting today as [Yen Trader 1] and cash guy off [Primary Submitter] Yen Manager: great set it nice and low Yen Trader 2: 1.02 in 6m or lower Yen Manager: yeh lower Yen Trader 2: 1.01 then cant really go much lower than that Yen Manager: ok Yen Trader 2: u care for 1m and 3m too[?]
  • (19) Another wrote: "I am backing Gatwick for a second runway but if u cant handle passenger influx with one runway, how will u handle 2??"
  • (20) Changes in the levels of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6P-DH) activity, versus tumour volume were measured in vivo under normoxic conditions in the CaNT tumours grown in CBA mice.

Descant


Definition:

  • (v. i.) Originally, a double song; a melody or counterpoint sung above the plain song of the tenor; a variation of an air; a variation by ornament of the main subject or plain song.
  • (v. i.) The upper voice in part music.
  • (v. i.) The canto, cantus, or soprano voice; the treble.
  • (v. i.) A discourse formed on its theme, like variations on a musical air; a comment or comments.
  • (v. i.) To sing a variation or accomplishment.
  • (v. i.) To comment freely; to discourse with fullness and particularity; to discourse at large.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Tony Blair added his characteristic descant, adding " We have imbibed deeply of the Olympic spirit … in throwing timidity to the winds we have rediscovered a spirit that is our own ".
  • (2) In a group of cases in which the symptoms had lasted a few months only a displacement towards high frequencies ("descant" displacement) was revealed.
  • (3) Hyperbolic”, sings George, while his friend David does descant, and the massed bands of Fleet Street march into battle.
  • (4) Yet Ukip – from the very beginning – played a racist descant on top of this tune of justifiable grievances.
  • (5) And yet there's a descant in Perth to the major-key optimism that has marked every SNP conference in the last few years.
  • (6) It will certainly bring the contest to succeed Mr Cameron closer – that is the loud descant to everything that is happening among the Tories at Westminster at the moment, as Mr Johnson’s antics demonstrate.
  • (7) Vocal chords will be lubricated with mulled wine and those attempting the dog-whistle Ding Dong descant would do well to consult the pub’s superior malt whisky collection in advance.
  • (8) Unnoticed by anyone, he maintains a gloomy descant ("A dollar is still a lot of money"; "I've suffered from depression all my life"; "I am dubious") to their falsely cheerful exchanges.
  • (9) That's why the opening of the Hockney show has been taking place to a not particularly subtle descant of propaganda and provocation from the great man himself.
  • (10) Indeed, Rona Fairhead, the current chair and once a favoured contributor to George Osborne’s Treasury deliberations, seems as miffed as anyone, while Sir Christopher Bland and Sir Michael Lyons sing transparency’s descant at the back of the chorus.