Can

Can (kan)

[See Gan.]

an obs. form of began, imp. & past participle of Begin, sometimes used in old poetry. [See Gan.]

With gentle words he can faile gree. — Spenser

Can , noun

[Old English & Anglo-Saxon canne; akin to Dutch Kan, German Kanne, Old High German channa, Swedish Kanna, Danish kande.]

A drinking cup; a vessel for holding liquids. — [Shak. ]

Fill the cup and fill can, Have a rouse before the morn. — Tennyson

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.

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.

Can , transitive verb

To preserve by putting in sealed cans [United States]

Canned meats — W. D. Howells

Collocations (1)

Canned goods , a general name for fruit, vegetables, meat, or fish, preserved in hermetically sealed cans.

Can , verb, transitive and intransitive

[Old English cunnen, cannen (1st sing. pres. I can), to know, know how, be able, Anglo-Saxon cunnan, 1st sing. pres. ic cann or can, pl. cunnon, 1st sing. imp. cūee (for cunee); p. p. cūe (for cune); akin to Old Saxon Kunnan, Dutch Kunnen, Old High German chunnan, German konnen, Icelandic kunna, Gothic Kunnan, and English ken to know. The present tense I can (Anglo-Saxon ic cann) was originally a preterit, meaning I have known or Learned, and hence I know, know how. r45. See Ken, Know; compare Con, Cunning, Uncouth.]

[The transitive use is obsolete.]

To know; to understand. [Obsolete]

I can rimes of Robin Hood. — Piers Plowman

I can no Latin, quod she. — Piers Plowman

Let the priest in surplice white, That defunctive music can. — Shakespeare

To be able to do; to have power or influence. [Obsolete]

The will of Him who all things can. — Milton

For what, alas, can these my single arms? — Shakespeare

Macanas and Agrippa, who can most with Casar. — Beau. & Fl

To be able; -- followed by an infinitive without to; as, I can go, but do not wish to.

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 — De Quincey

Tom felt that this was a rebuff for him, and could not but understand it as a left-handed hit at his employer. — Dickens