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Can   /kæn/  /kən/   Listen
verb
Can  v. t. & v. i.  (past & past part. could)  (The transitive use is obsolete)
1.
To know; to understand. (Obs.) "I can rimes of Robin Hood." "I can no Latin, quod she." "Let the priest in surplice white, That defunctive music can."
2.
To be able to do; to have power or influence. (Obs.) "The will of Him who all things can." "For what, alas, can these my single arms?" "Maecaenas and Agrippa, who can most with Caesar."
3.
To be able; followed by an infinitive without to; as, I can go, but do not wish to.
Synonyms: Can but, Can not but. It is an error to use the former of these phrases where the sens requires the latter. If we say, "I can but perish if I go," "But" means only, and denotes that this is all or the worst that can happen. When the apostle Peter said. "We can not but speak of the things which we have seen and heard." he referred to a moral constraint or necessety which rested upon him and his associates; and the meaning was, We cannot help speaking, We cannot refrain from speaking. This idea of a moral necessity or constraint is of frequent occurrence, and is also expressed in the phrase, "I can not help it." Thus we say. "I can not but hope," "I can not but believe," "I can not but think," "I can not but remark," etc., in cases in which it would be an error to use the phrase can but. "Yet he could not but acknowledge to himself that there was something calculated to impress awe,... in the sudden appearances and vanishings... of the masque" "Tom felt that this was a rebuff for him, and could not but understand it as a left-handed hit at his employer."



Can  v. t.  (past & past part. canned; pres. part. canning)  To preserve by putting in sealed cans (U. S.) "Canned meats"
Canned goods, a general name for fruit, vegetables, meat, or fish, preserved in hermetically sealed cans.



Can  v.  An obs. form of began, imp. & p. p. of Begin, sometimes used in old poetry. Note: (See Gan.) "With gentle words he can faile gree."



noun
Can  n.  
1.
A drinking cup; a vessel for holding liquids. "Fill the cup and fill can, Have a rouse before the morn."
2.
A vessel or case of tinned iron or of sheet metal, of various forms, but usually cylindrical; as, a can of tomatoes; an oil can; a milk can. Note: A can may be a cylinder open at the top, as for receiving the sliver from a carding machine, or with a removable cover or stopper, as for holding tea, spices, milk, oysters, etc., or with handle and spout, as for holding oil, or hermetically sealed, in canning meats, fruits, etc. The name is also sometimes given to the small glass or earthenware jar used in canning.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Can" Quotes from Famous Books



... to place upon the tablet which will be fixed to the wall of the Strachey Chapel in Chew Magna Church, nothing but the words: "His friends were many and true-hearted." I admit that this is a piece of self-laudation that a man could hardly be justified in bestowing upon himself. If you can read their "history in a people's eyes," you can certainly best read a man's history by asking who were his friends and how did they treat him and feel towards him. Till lately, however, I have felt a difficulty in the matter, for, to tell the truth, these deeply ...
— The Adventure of Living • John St. Loe Strachey

... Hull was matched against five British captains, two of whom, Broke and Byron, were fully equal to any in their navy; and while the latter showed great perseverance, good seamanship, and ready imitation, there can be no doubt that the palm in every way belongs to the cool old Yankee. Every daring expedient known to the most perfect seamanship was tried, and tried with success; and no victorious fight could reflect more credit on the conqueror than this three days' chase did on Hull. Later, on two occasions, ...
— The Naval War of 1812 • Theodore Roosevelt

... shall keep'—guard, garrison—'your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.' We have to think of some defenceless position, some unwalled village out in the open, with a strong force round it, through which no assailant can break, and in the midst of which the weakest can sit secure. Peter thinks that every Christian has assailants whom no Christian by himself can repel, but that he may, if he likes, have an impregnable ring of defence drawn round him, which shall fling back in idle spray the wildest ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John • Alexander Maclaren

... given in the seventeenth century of the relation between man and God is immortal and worthy of epic treatment. A thousand years hence a much better estimate of Milton will be possible than that which can be formed to-day. We attribute to him mechanic construction in dead material because it is dead to ourselves. Even Mr. Ruskin who was far too great not to recognise in part at least Milton's claims, says that "Milton's account of the most ...
— Pages from a Journal with Other Papers • Mark Rutherford

... strike, the young coco-nut sends up at first a fine rosette of big spreading leaves, not raised as afterwards on a tall stem, but springing direct from the ground in a wide circle, something like a very big and graceful fern. In this early stage nothing can be more beautiful or more essentially tropical in appearance than a plantation of young coco-nuts. Their long feathery leaves spreading out in great clumps from the buried stock, and waving with lithe motion before the strong sea-breeze of the Indies, ...
— Falling in Love - With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science • Grant Allen


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