[f. prec.] a. trans. To propel (a boat) with a quant. Also absol. b. intr. Of a boat: To be propelled with a quant.
1865. [implied in QUANTING vbl. sb.]
1883. G. C. Davies, Norfolk Broads, v. 37. The water was too deep for us to quant our punt.
1887. W. Rye, Norfolk Broads, p. ii. Great disinclinations to quant or scull.
1893. Toynbee Rec., 90. Now her stem, now a broadside, is toward us … as she quants against the breeze.
Hence Quanting vbl. sb. (also attrib.)
1865. W. White, East. Eng., I. 84. Wherry men, to whom the operation of ‘quanting’ is very familiar.
1883. G. C. Davies, Norfolk Broads, x. 77. There may be a quanting-match.
1887. W. Rye, Norfolk Broads, 39. We and the wherry, by dint of very hard quanting, managed … to get as far as the ruins.
