CANT. (I) A term used in architecture where the corner of a square is cut off, octagonally or otherwise (possibly from Lat. cantos, corner). Thus a bay window, the sides of which are not parallel, or at right angles to the spectator, is canted. (2) A word appearing in English in the 16th century for the whining speech of beggars (Lat. cantare, to sing) ; hence it is applied to thieves' or gipsies' jargon, to the peculiar language of any class or sect, and particularly to the hypocritical use of pious phraseology.