chant

verb

1. 1

   To sing, especially without instruments, and as applied to monophonic and pre-modern music.

   the cherefull birds of sundry kind / Do chaunt sweet musick, to delight his mind

2. 2

   To sing or intone sacred text.

3. 3

   To utter or repeat in a strongly rhythmical manner, especially as a group.

   The football fans chanted insults at the referee.

   On their way to Parliament Square, the demonstrators chanted slogans, sang the Hungarian national anthem, and waved banners and Hungarian flags (minus the hated Communist emblem).

4. 4

   archaicTo sell horses fraudulently, exaggerating their merits.

noun

1. 1

   Type of singing done generally without instruments and harmony.

2. 2

   A short and simple melody to which unmetrical psalms, etc., are sung or recited.

3. 3

   A short and simple melody to which unmetrical psalms, etc., are sung or recited. A harmonized melody used in Anglican chant, usually split into two two-bar phrases, to which the words of a psalm are sung by a choir; typically, each musical phrase corresponds to the text of half of a verse.

4. 4

   Twang; manner of speaking; a canting tone.

   His strange face, his strange chant.

5. 5

   A repetitive song, typically an incantation or part of a ritual.

Forms

plural

chants

past tense

chanted

past participle

chanted

present participle

chanting

third person singular

chants