can

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“
Wrapped around the can is an engraved steel label tied with black braided ribbon tipped in metal; a detail synonymous with BOUDICCA team's highly refined finishing details on their garments.

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Definitions (56)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (21)

  1. auxiliary verb Used to indicate physical or mental ability: I can carry both suitcases. Can you remember the war?
  2. auxiliary verb Used to indicate possession of a specified power, right, or privilege: The President can veto congressional bills.
  3. auxiliary verb Used to indicate possession of a specified capability or skill: I can tune the harpsichord as well as play it.
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Examples (50)

  • The sight of the gray-brown husk half hidden by terry cloth in the bottom of the can was the final straw. —  F ;SF - vol 089 issue 02 - August 1995
  • Bean dip in a can is the last stop on the road of dips before you run off a cliff. —  Zombie Fights Shark!
  • Most items you buy in a can are all made by the same company only have different labels.
  • Souvenir Photograph Order forms in Spanish can be obtained by the link below, faxing a written request to (619) 293-2672 or writing to The San Diego Union-Tribune Publishing Company at the above address. —  Fore, right!
  • Doctors who insist on speaking in scientific terms rather than explaining things in plain English can make understanding an illness difficult for a patient, Dunn says.
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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (7)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English, first and third person sing. present tense of connen, to know how, from Old English cunnan; see gnō- in Indo-European roots.
  2. Middle English canne, a water container, from Old English.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (5)

  1. The forms are: (1) Indian present 1st person can, 2d canst, 3d can, plural can, from Middle English can, canst, can (also con, etc.), plural cunnen, cunne (also connen, conne), from Anglo-Saxon cannor can, canst, cann or can (also conn, etc.), plural cunnon. (2) Pret. could (the l being inserted in ignorant imitation of should and would, where the l is radical), from Middle English coude, couthe, earlier cuthe, plural coude, couden, couthe, couthen, earlier cuthen, from Anglo-Saxon cūthe, plural cūthon (for *cunthe, *cunthon, the n being lost, as in mūth, mouth, tōth, tooth, etc.). (3) Inf. can (to can), assumed from the indicative form, occasionally used in modern English as a convenient substitute for to be able, or, as in the example cited from Bacon, analogously with will as an independent verb; Middle English infinitive cunnen, cunne, also connen, conne (usually ‘to know,’ rarely ‘to can’), from Anglo-Saxon cunnan, scarcely used. (4) The present participle, Middle English cunning, kunnynge, etc., earlier and northern form cunnand, is modern English cunning, with a partly deflected sense: see cunning, adjective, and cunning, n. (5) The past participle couth is found in modern English only in comp. uncouth, and deriv. kith, kithe, q. v.; Middle English couth, coud, cuth, from Anglo-Saxon cūth (for *cunth, like preterit cūthe above), known. The Middle English and Anglo-Saxon sense of can as an independent verb is ‘know’; as an auxiliary, ‘be able’; but the latter use is rare in Anglo-Saxon, being supplied by mœg, English may. The cognate forms (1st and 3d person present and preterit indicative, and infinitive) are: Old Saxon kan, konsta, kunnan = OFries. kan, kunda, kunna, konna = Dutch kan, konde, kunnen = Middle Low German kan, kunde, kunnen, konnen, konen, Low German kan, kunde, könen = Old High German chan, kan, chunda, chonda, konda, chonsta, konsta, chunnan, Middle High German kan, kunde, konde, kunnen, künnen, G. kann, konnte, können = Icelandic kann, kunni, kunna = Swedish kan, kunde, kunna = Danish kan, kunde, kunne = Gothic (Moesogothic) kann, kuntha, kunnan, know; properly a preterit present, Anglo-Saxon cann being orig. a strong preterit (with past participle *cunnen, whence the later weak preterit cūthe, and weak past participle cūth) of an assumed infinitive *cinnan (whence the factitive cennan, make known, = Icelandic kenna, make known, know: see ken), Teutonic √ *kin, *ken (= Lithuanian zinaú, know, recognize, = Old Irish adgein, perfect, knew), orig. ‘perceive, get knowledge of’ (preterit ‘have perceived, have gotten knowledge of,’ and hence, in indefinite or present time, ‘know’), this root being parallel with the ult. related *knā, *knō in Anglo-Saxon cnāwan, English know, Latin gno-scere, etc. (see know); in another view orig. ‘beget, get’ (preterit ‘have gotten’), connected with Anglo-Saxon cennan, beget, produce, cynn, kin, ge-cynd, kind, etc., √ *ken, L. *gen, etc., but this root, though equally widely extended, appears to be fundamentally distinct from the root *ken, know: see ken, kin, kind, genus, etc. Hence ult. con (= can), con, cun, cun, cunning, couth, uncouth (= unco), kith, kithe, etc.
  2. from can, v.
  3. from Middle English canne, from Anglo-Saxon canne (translating L. “crater vel canna”) = Dutch kan, a pot, mug, = Old High German channa, Middle High German G, kanne, a can, tankard, mug, = Icelandic kanna = Swedish kanna = Danish kande, a can, tankard, mug, also measure, later Middle Latin canna, cana, a vessel or measure for liquids, later Old French canne, cane, F. diminutive canette, a jug. By some the Teutonic forms are derived from Latin canna, a reed, cane: see cane.
  4. from can, n.
  5. East Indian
 

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/kæn/
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