Green’s Dictionary of Slang

chant v.

also chaunt
[chant n.]

1. (orig. UK Und.) to sing, esp. to sing for money in the street; to sing to sell one’s wares.

[UK]Tinker of Turvey 25: A Cobler, a merry fellow [...] who was wont on working-dayes, to chant it out at his worke.
[Scot]Scots Mag. 6 Feb. 15/1: A traveller [...] chears his heart with what his fate affords, And chaunts his sonnet.
[UK]J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 42: I chant, I gagg; I sing Ballads, I beg.
[UK]H. Howard Choice Spirits Museum 66: We chaunt with Glee the jovial Strain.
[UK] ‘Bundle of Proverbs’ in Jovial Songster 64: ’Tis true, I can’t sing like the smarts of the town (hum!) / But I now and then chaunt out a stave of my own.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]W.T. Moncrieff Tom and Jerry II vi: I’ll chaunt a few words to that beautiful ballad-singer.
[UK] ‘Sweet Mr. Levi’ Universal Songster I 22: When around in London streets, / I chant away old clothes; / Clo-sale — clo-sale — clo —.
[UK] ‘Life In London’ in Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 11: Chaunt a stave, and blow a cloud.
[UK]J. Overs Evenings of a Working Man 188: Bill chuants [...] something of the Rochester school.
[UK]Swell’s Night Guide 76: Don’t he chant that’ere slashing? O, rumbo!
[UK]Kendal Mercury 17 Apr. 6/1: Now vill he hoblidge hus vith a stave? It’s six moons since I heard you chaunt.
[UK]Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 19: chaunt, to sing the contents of any paper in the streets.
Golden Age (Queenbeyan, NSW) 31 July 2/6: It is of the characters who inhabit its brick houses, slab huts, bark gunyahs, and fly tents, that we intend to chaunt our lay.
[UK] ‘The Catalogue’ in Rakish Rhymer (1917) 8: But genteel and amusing, / I never chaunts no wulgar song.
[UK]Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].
Sheefield Dly Teleg. 18 Feb. 8/5: Horse Chaunting [...] He has dragged the fraudulent horse-chaunter before a court of justice.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 8 Jan. 4/4: O answer, though dread bard, of what avail / To chaunt a lay that makes Parnassus quail, / Draws from the muse’s eyes scalding tears, / And with its discord splits the list’ners’ ears.
[UK]O.C. Malvery Soul Market 38: ‘Chant us a lay,’ he said [...] ‘Sing something.’.
[US]W.A. Gape Half a Million Tramps 192: We spent two days in Cambridge and collected another pound by ‘chanting’ the streets.
[UK]P. Baker Fabulosa 290/2: chant to sing.

2. (UK Und.) to count up.

[UK]J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 43: Chant his Tuggs; count his Clothes.
[UK]Whole Art of Thieving .

3. (UK Und.) to sell a horse fraudulently.

[UK]Sporting Mag. XLIX 305: A number of frauds have been practised lately in the disposal of horses... by a gang of... swindlers, who technically call it chaunting horses [F&H].
[UK]‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 24: Chanting a horse is to get one or more independent persons apparently, to give him a good name [and] swear to his perfections.
[UK]C.M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I 199–200: [...] he’ll laugh, Chant up a prad, or quaintly chaff To keep life’s pleasant farce on [F&H].
[UK]Thackeray Adventures of Philip (1899) 333: You may as well say that horses are sold in heaven, which, as you know, are groomed, are doctored, are chanted on to the market.

4. to praise.

[UK]Derby Mercury 8 Jan. 3/1: Ye warbling Choir that chaunt the Spring.
[UK]Shrewsbury Chron. 12 Dec. 7/2: Hark to Philemon’s high and heavenly strains! / It’s him I’ll chaunt, it’s him that I admire.
[UK]Ipswich Jrnl 5 Apr. 4/4: Ah! let me chaunt his merit, wisdom, worth.
[Scot]Scots Mag. 1 June 39/2: While mermaids’ voices fill the air, / And chaunt the virtues of the chosen fair.
[UK]P. Egan Key to the Picture of the Fancy going to a Fight 27: [S]langly chaunting the heroic deeds of the Fancy.
[UK]‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 24: Chant — to chant, to praise off, inordinately.

5. (UK Und.) to publish an account in a newspaper.

[UK]Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: To Chaunt. [...] To publish an account in the newspapers. The kiddey was chaunted for a toby; his examination concerning a highway robbery was published in the papers.
[UK]Morn. Post (London) 18 Nov. 3/5: If Mr Burke declines this challenge, I will chant him a cur.
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[US]Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 26 Oct. n.p.: No one knows what is in a pocketbook unles it is ‘chanted’ in the papers.

6. (UK Und.) to mark one’s personal possessions with an identifying name.

[Aus]Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964).

7. (Aus. Und.) for the victim of a robbery to advertise for their property (and offer payment); thus n. chant, such an advertisment.

[Aus]Sydney Gaz. 10 May 3/3: [They] keep bim in safe and close confinement, till the ‘customer,’ as they term it, shall advertise a reward amounting to what they think rather more than half the value; or,' to use their own words, ‘chanted’ at a price that will ‘fetch’ him.
[Aus]Sydney Gaz. 10 May 3/3: [Y]ou will generally recover your dog, because their agent [...] who is always on the look-out for ‘chants,’ will either go or send to you with the joyful tidings of your favourite.

8. (US) to talk (about), to talk persuasively.

[US]Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 5 Mar. n.p.: A setter I vos once, ’tis true, could chaunt like head of Mammon.
[US]H. Gold Man Who Was Not With It (1965) 4: He was a sallow stooped carnie [...] but he had a knack: he could chant them into anything.

9. to swear.

[UK]J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

10. (UK tramp) to sing for alms; thus chanting n.

[US]W.A. Gape Half a Million Tramps 159: ‘Well, “chanting” is as good a way as any, so we can do a bit of that,’ she decided.

11. to shout headlines in order to sell newspapers.

[UK](con. 1920s) J. Sparks Burglar to the Nobility 28: What do you want me to do, Lily, then, go [...] back to chanting newspapers on the corner?

12. (UK black) to speechify in the street.

[UK](con. 1981) A. Wheatle East of Acre Lane 170: Dem bible t’umping man who chant outside Terry’s Waterloo.

In compounds

chanting crib (n.) (also chanting casa, chaunting crib)

a public house where performers sing for the customers.

[UK]New Sprees of London 12: ‘Here [...] is the Sun [...] a chanting crib. This is a crib famous for the soldiers and their mots; a noisy lot’.
[UK]New Sprees of London 12: Jones conducts this room ; a civil, obliging fellow, and chants a decent stave ; there is also some very tidy chanting here ; and, considering it is a chanting casey, the lush is very fair.
[UK]Peeping Tom (London) 1 4/3: the swell’s guide [...] The Chaffing Cribs — The introducing Houses — The Chaunting Cribs — the List of Fancy Ladies.

In phrases

chant down (v.)

(W.I.) to criticize.

[WI]Bob Marley ‘Chant Down Babylon’ 🎵 And how I know, and that’s how I know / A Reggae Music, mek we chant down Babylon / With music, mek we chant down Babylon / This music, mek we chant down Babylon / This music, come we chant down Babylon.
[WI]M. Montague Dread Culture 155: ‘Sing us a song den.’ ‘Yeah, man, let us chant down Babylon.’.
[UK]F. D’Aguiar in Kwesi Johnson Mi Revalueshanary Fren ix: Chanting Down Babylon.
chant the can (v.) [? Ital. canto, a song]

to speak Romany.

[UK]P. Manning ‘Sl.’ in Kray (1989) 62: To understand Romany you must be able to chant the can.
chant the poker (v.) [? the innate ordinariness of a poker, which cannot be ‘chanted’ otherwise]

to exaggerate; thus don’t chant the poker, don’t exaggerate.

[UK]Partridge DSUE (1984) 197/2: C.19.
chaunt upon the leer (v.) [leer n.]

to advertise, to publicize, to write up in the press.

[UK]G. Parker Life’s Painter 142: You forget when you was the village bustler, and was chaunted upon the leer, for doing a farmer out of a screen [Ibid.] 178: Chaunted upon the leer. Chaunted is cant for a person being advertised; leer is cant for a news-paper; if one sees another advertised, it is said, he is chaunted upon the leer.