CAN

can, tin, tin can

(noun) airtight sealed metal container for food or drink or paint etc.

toilet, lavatory, lav, can, john, privy, bathroom

(noun) a room or building equipped with one or more toilets

toilet, can, commode, crapper, pot, potty, stool, throne

(noun) a plumbing fixture for defecation and urination

buttocks, nates, arse, butt, backside, bum, buns, can, fundament, hindquarters, hind end, keister, posterior, prat, rear, rear end, rump, stern, seat, tail, tail end, tooshie, tush, bottom, behind, derriere, fanny, ass

(noun) the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on; “he deserves a good kick in the butt”; “are you going to sit on your fanny and do nothing?”

can, can buoy

(noun) a buoy with a round bottom and conical top

can, canful

(noun) the quantity contained in a can

can, tin, put up

(verb) preserve in a can or tin; “tinned foods are not very tasty”

displace, fire, give notice, can, dismiss, give the axe, send away, sack, force out, give the sack, terminate

(verb) terminate the employment of; discharge from an office or position; “The boss fired his secretary today”; “The company terminated 25% of its workers”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology 1

Verb

can (third-person singular simple present can, present participle -, simple past could, past participle (obsolete except in adjectival use) couth)

(auxiliary verb, defective) To know how to; to be able to.

Synonym: be able to

Antonyms: cannot, can't, can’t

(modal auxiliary verb, defective, informal) May; to be permitted or enabled to.

Synonym: may

(modal auxiliary verb, defective) To have the potential to; be possible.

(auxiliary verb, defective) Used with verbs of perception.

(obsolete, transitive) To know.

Synonyms: cognize, grok, ken

Usage notes

• For missing forms, substitute inflected forms of be able to, as

I might be able to go.

I was able to go yesterday.

I have been able to go, since I was seven.

I had been able to go before.

I will be able to go tomorrow.

• The word could also suffices in many tenses. “I would be able to go” is equivalent to “I could go”, and “I was unable to go” can be rendered “I could not go”. (Unless there is a clear indication otherwise, “could verb” means “would be able to verb”, but “could not verb” means “was/were unable to verb”.)

• The present tense negative can not is usually contracted to cannot (more formal) or can’t (less formal).

• The use of can in asking permission sometimes is criticized as being impolite or incorrect by those who favour the more formal alternative “may I...?”.

• Can is sometimes used rhetorically to issue a command, placing the command in the form of a request. For instance, “Can you hand me that pen?” as a polite substitution for “Hand me that pen.”

• Some US dialects that glottalize the final /t/ in can’t (/kæn(ʔ)/), in order to differentiate can’t from can, pronounce can as /kɛn/ even when stressed.

Etymology 2

Noun

can (plural cans)

A more or less cylindrical vessel for liquids, usually of steel or aluminium, but sometimes of plastic, and with a carrying handle over the top.

A container used to carry and dispense water for plants (a watering can).

A tin-plate canister, often cylindrical, for preserved foods such as fruit, meat, or fish.

(archaic) A chamber pot, now (US, slang) a toilet or lavatory.

(US, slang) Buttocks.

(slang) Jail or prison.

(slang, in the plural) Headphones.

(archaic) A drinking cup.

(nautical) A cube-shaped buoy or marker used to denote a port-side lateral mark

A chimney pot.

Synonyms

• (toilet): See chamber pot and toilet

• (place with a toilet): See bathroom

• (cylindrical metal container): tin (British & Australian at least)

Hyponyms

(Hyponyms of can (Etymology 2)):

• beer can

• garbage can

• soda can

• trash can

Verb

can (third-person singular simple present cans, present participle canning, simple past and past participle canned)

To seal in a can.

To preserve by heating and sealing in a jar or can.

To discard, scrap or terminate (an idea, project, etc.).

(transitive, slang) To shut up.

(US, euphemistic) To fire or dismiss an employee.

(golf, slang, transitive) To hole the ball.

Synonyms

• (discard): bin, dump, scrap; see also junk

• (shut up): can it, stifle; see also stop talking or make silent

• (dismiss an employee): axe, let go, shit-can; see also lay off

Anagrams

• ANC, CNA, NAC, NCA

Proper noun

Can

Alternative spelling of Can.

Anagrams

• ANC, CNA, NAC, NCA

Etymology 1

Abbreviation

Proper noun

CAN

(computing, industry, automotive) Abbreviation of Controller Area Network, ISO standards 11898, 11898-1, 11898-2, and its predecessor standards.

Noun

CAN (countable and uncountable, plural CANs)

(inorganic compound, uncountable) ceric ammonium nitrate

(computing, industry, automotive, countable) Abbreviation of controller area network.

(computing, countable) Initialism of campus area network.

(South Africa, countable) Acronym of community action network.

Initialism of consistent and asymptotically normal, a statistic estimator T_n(X₁, X₂, .., X_n) is CAN (consistent and asymptotically normal) if ....

Etymology 2

Proper noun

CAN

(initialism) The Andean Community of Nations.

Anagrams

• ANC, CNA, NAC, NCA

Source: Wiktionary

Can,

Definition: 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. Spenser.

Can, n. Etym: [OE. & AS. canne; akin to D. Kan, G. Kanne, OHG. channa, Sw. Kanna, Dan. kande.]

1. A drinking cup; a vessel for holding liquids. [Shak. ] Fill the cup and fill can, Have a rouse before the morn. Tennyson.

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.

Can, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Canned; p. pr. &vb. n. Canning.]

Definition: To preserve by putting in sealed cans [U. S.] "Canned meats" W. D. Howells. Canned goods, a general name for fruit, vegetables, meat, or fish, preserved in hermetically sealed cans.

Can, v. t. & i.

Note: [The transitive use is obsolete.] [imp. Could.] Etym: [OE. cunnen, cannen (1st sing. pres. I can), to know, know how, be able, AS. cunnan, 1st sing. pres. ic cann or can, pl. cunnon, 1st sing. imp. cu\'ebe (for cunthe); p. p. cu\'eb (for cunth); akin to OS. Kunnan, D. Kunnen, OHG. chunnan, G. können, Icel. kunna, Goth. Kunnan, and E. ken to know. The present tense I can (AS. ic cann) was originally a preterit, meaning I have known or Learned, and hence I know, know how. *45. See Ken, Know; cf. Con, Cunning, Uncouth.]

1. To know; to understand. [Obs.] I can rimes of Rodin Hood. Piers Plowman. I can no Latin, quod she. Piers Plowman. Let the priest in surplice white, That defunctive music can. Shak.

2. To be able to do; to have power or influence. [Obs.] The will of Him who all things can. Milton. For what, alas, can these my single arms Shak. Mæcænas and Agrippa, who can most with Cæsar. Beau. & Fl.

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

Syn.

– 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 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.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

CAN

Etymology 1

Verb

Usage notes

Etymology 2

Noun

Synonyms

Hyponyms

Verb

Synonyms

Anagrams

Proper noun

Anagrams

Etymology 1

Proper noun

Noun

Etymology 2

Proper noun

Anagrams

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