CANT

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CANT. The JARGON of a class, group, or profession, often used to exclude or mislead others: a teenage gang member in Los Angeles saying that he was in his hoopty around dimday when some mud duck with a trey-eight tried to take him out of the box (he was in his car around dusk when a woman armed with a .38 calibre pistol tried to shoot him). Cant is a temporary form of language that changes quickly; when outsiders pick some of it up, the group evolves new usages. Expressions often move into the general language; cant terms that are now general SLANG include moniker name, bilk to swindle, beef a complaint/to complain, and hit kill. See ARGOT, SHELTA.

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