Green’s Dictionary of Slang

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

1630		Tinker of Turvey 25: A Cobler, a merry fellow [...] who was wont on working-dayes, to chant it out at his worke.
1747		Scots Mag. 6 Feb. 15/1: A traveller [...] chears his heart with what his fate affords, And chaunts his sonnet.
1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 42: I chant, I gagg; I sing Ballads, I beg.
1765		H. Howard Choice Spirits Museum 66: We chaunt with Glee the jovial Strain.
1800		‘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.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1821		W.T. Moncrieff Tom and Jerry II vi: I’ll chaunt a few words to that beautiful ballad-singer.
1825		‘Sweet Mr. Levi’ Universal Songster I 22: When around in London streets, / I chant away old clothes; / Clo-sale — clo-sale — clo —.
1833		‘Life In London’ in Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 11: Chaunt a stave, and blow a cloud.
1844		J. Overs Evenings of a Working Man 188: Bill chuants [...] something of the Rochester school.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 76: Don’t he chant that’ere slashing? O, rumbo!
1852		Kendal Mercury 17 Apr. 6/1: Now vill he hoblidge hus vith a stave? It’s six moons since I heard you chaunt.
1859, 1860		Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 19: chaunt, to sing the contents of any paper in the streets.
1862		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.
c.1864		‘The Catalogue’ in Rakish Rhymer (1917) 8: But genteel and amusing, / I never chaunts no wulgar song.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].
1875		Sheefield Dly Teleg. 18 Feb. 8/5: Horse Chaunting [...] He has dragged the fraudulent horse-chaunter before a court of justice.
1881		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.
1906		O.C. Malvery Soul Market 38: ‘Chant us a lay,’ he said [...] ‘Sing something.’.
1936		W.A. Gape Half a Million Tramps 192: We spent two days in Cambridge and collected another pound by ‘chanting’ the streets.
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 290/2: chant to sing.

2. (UK Und.) to count up.

1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 43: Chant his Tuggs; count his Clothes.
1786		Whole Art of Thieving .

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

1816		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].
1823		‘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.
1825		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].
1862		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.

1735		Derby Mercury 8 Jan. 3/1: Ye warbling Choir that chaunt the Spring.
1772		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.
1788		Ipswich Jrnl 5 Apr. 4/4: Ah! let me chaunt his merit, wisdom, worth.
1795		Scots Mag. 1 June 39/2: While mermaids’ voices fill the air, / And chaunt the virtues of the chosen fair.
1819		P. Egan Key to the Picture of the Fancy going to a Fight 27: [S]langly chaunting the heroic deeds of the Fancy.
1823		‘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.

1811		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.
1814		Morn. Post (London) 18 Nov. 3/5: If Mr Burke declines this challenge, I will chant him a cur.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1867		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.

1812

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.

1831		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.
1831		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.

1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 5 Mar. n.p.: A setter I vos once, ’tis true, could chaunt like head of Mammon.
1956		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.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

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

1936

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.

1961

(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.

2001

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