can

Less common meanings

5. 5
   polite requestverbcolloquialauxiliarymodal

   Used to ask someone, usually politely, to do or permit something.

   Can you give me a hand with these boxes?

   Can someone open a window?

   UsageCould you …? sounds a little more polite than can you …?, and please softens either one.

   Similarwill, would

6. 6
   drink or food tinnouncountable

   A sealed metal container, cylindrical or box-shaped, in which food or drink is preserved and sold.

   Recycle your cans and bottles.

   For a week we lived on food out of a can.

   UsageUsually a can of + what is inside: a can of soda, a can of beans.

   Similartin

7. 7
   carrying containernouncountable

   A container, usually metal, for holding or carrying things, especially liquids, such as a milk can, gas can, or watering can.

   The old milk cans stood by the farm gate.

   Bring a can of paint and a brush.

   UsageOften in compounds such as oil can, or with of for the contents: a can of paint.

   Similarcanister

   Note

   The general container goes back to Old English canne, a glass, cup or jar. It was a word for a vessel long before it was a word for metal. The food tin and the watering can are later, narrower uses of this one. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • The container noun descends from Old English canne, meaning a glass, cup or jar. en.wiktionary.org
   • The food-container use is a later specialization of the general container noun. en.wikipedia.org
   • The watering-can use is a later specialization of the general container noun. en.wikipedia.org
8. 8
   scrap a planverbtransitive

   To discard, scrap, or terminate an idea, project, program, or plan.

   The council canned the bypass scheme on cost grounds.

   We may have to can the trip if it rains.

   UsageOften passive, with no one named: the scheme was canned.

   Similarscrap, drop, cancel, abandon, shelve

   Note

   The container noun put to work as a verb of dismissal: what is canned is put away for good. Aimed at a worker, the same move gives the sense of firing someone; aimed at talk, it gives the "shut up" meaning. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • The dismissal verb 'can' shares its etymological origin with the container noun; Wiktionary groups both under Etymology 2. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   fire from jobverbslangeuphemisticUStransitive

   To dismiss from employment; to fire.

   He was canned for missing too many shifts.

   Any more mistakes and they'll can the whole team.

   UsageMost often passive with get or be: she got canned, he was canned. It is only slightly softer than fired.

   Similarfire, sack, dismiss

   Oppositehire, employ

10. 10
    seal in jarsverbtransitive

    To seal food or drink in cans or jars so that it keeps, or more generally to pack any product into cans.

    Each summer we can tomatoes, beans and peaches from the garden.

    Canned peaches taste of summer in January.

    UsageThe form canned can come before a noun: canned peaches, canned food.

    Similarpreserve, tin, bottle

    Note

    Heat is the point here: the food is sealed and heat-processed. The container can just as well be a glass jar as a tin, so home canning often involves no cans at all. In factories the word also covers simply sealing drinks or food into cans, with or without cooking. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Canning involves heat processing and sealing, but heating can occur after sealing. mealtime.org
    • Food can be canned in glass jars as well as metal containers, including at home. nchfp.uga.edu
11. 11
    toiletnounslangUS

    A toilet or lavatory.

    The bar's can was down a flight of stairs.

    I didn't have anything special to do, so I went down to the can and chewed the rag with him while he was shaving.

    1951, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

    UsageUsually with the: go to the can, Where's the can?

    Similarjohn, toilet, latrine, loo, bog

    Note

    In American slang the room took over the pot's name. Salinger's narrator goes "down to the can" to chat, and Shit or get off the can is the blunt order to make up your mind. Bob's in the can can also mean he is behind bars, as with the prison slang, so the rest of the sentence has to settle which is meant. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • The lavatory sense developed from the name for a receptacle used as a toilet. users.monash.edu.au
    • Salinger's narrator describes going down to the can to chat in The Catcher in the Rye. en.wiktionary.org
    • “Shit or get off the can” is an established expression. en.wiktionary.org
12. 12
    behind barsnounslang

    Jail or prison, chiefly after 'in the'.

    Half the gang ended up in the can.

    She's out of the can and looking for work.

    Similarjail, prison, slammer, clink, joint

    Note

    The Traveling Wilburys use it in 1988, in a line about a policeman eager to see a man locked up. Because the toilet is also the can, Bob's in the can needs a follow-up like He won't be back for a few years to make the jail meaning clear.

13. 13
    bottomnounslangmildly vulgarchildishCanadaUScountable

    The buttocks.

    The coach told them to get off their cans.

    A boot in the can sent him through the door.

    UsageMild among friends and children (get off your can), but keep it out of polite or formal talk.

    Similarbutt, backside, behind, rear, bottom

    Note

    A North American slang word, childish or mildly vulgar depending on who says it. Since the toilet is also the can, sitting on your can invites a double reading.

14. 14
    breastsnounslangvulgarCanadaUScountable

    Usually in the plural, a woman's breasts.

    He was fired for a remark about a colleague's cans.

    Nobody wanted his opinion on anybody's cans.

    UsageCrude, and can sound demeaning or objectifying; avoid it in polite or professional conversation.

    Similarboobs, breasts, jugs

15. 15
    shut upverbslangtransitive

    To stop or put a lid on something; to shut up.

    Can it, the baby's asleep.

    The sergeant told us to can the whispering.

    UsageMostly an order: Can it!, or can the noise, can the chatter.

    Similarstop, quit

    Note

    Elmer Rice's "Aw, can all that talk!" from 1929 shows the pattern, and Can your gob is a ruder version. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • The quotation occurs in a play written by Elmer Rice; the character Maurrant speaks it. en.wikisource.org
    • The source play, Street Scene, was first published in 1929. en.wikisource.org
16. 16
    headphonesnounslangplural

    In the plural, headphones, especially the large over-ear kind used in studios.

    Every DJ in the booth had cans round their neck.

    These cans leak sound, so keep the volume down.

    Similarheadphones, headset, earphones

17. 17
    marijuana measurenounslangUScountable

    A quantity of marijuana amounting to an ounce, or occasionally two.

    Similarlid, ounce

    Note

    Drug slang here measures by the container: a can is an ounce, or sometimes two. A 1969 California Supreme Court case has a buyer asking for "four cans", which shows the word working as a countable unit with a number in front of it. It names a quantity, not the drug itself. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • A can denotes an ounce, or sometimes two ounces, of marijuana. en.wiktionary.org
    • The court records a buyer requesting “four cans,” demonstrating a numbered quantity. scocal.stanford.edu
18. 18
    nounarchaic

    A chamber pot.

    Similarcommode

    Note

    The chamber pot is now an archaic meaning, and it matters mostly as a bridge. It links the plain vessel to the slang word for a toilet, where the name passed from the pot to the room. Outside historical writing, a modern reader will take the can to mean the lavatory, not the pot under the bed. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Can has an archaic chamber-pot sense. en.wiktionary.org
    • The receptacle sense developed into the slang lavatory sense. users.monash.edu.au
19. 19
    nounarchaic

    A drinking cup; a tankard.

    Fill the cup and fill the can: / Have a rouse before the morn: / Every minute dies a man, / Every minute one is born.

    1842, Alfred Tennyson, “A Vision of Sin”

    SIR ANDREW: Nay, my troth, I know not: but I know, to be up late is to be up late. / SIR TOBY: A false conclusion: I hate it as an unfilled can.

    c. 1601, William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”

    Note

    The cup is the old sense. Old English canne already meant a cup or jar, and the drinking can survived in poetry. Shakespeare's Sir Toby hates something "as an unfilled can", and Tennyson still writes "Fill the cup and fill the can" in 1842. It often pairs with cup, as on the ale-bench of 1600, with its "cups and kannes". Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 7 facts

    • The drinking-vessel sense is old, descending from Old English canne, meaning a cup or jar. en.wiktionary.org
    • The drinking-vessel sense survived in poetry. archive.org
    • Sir Toby says the quoted words in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Act II, scene iii. gutenberg.org
    • Tennyson wrote the quoted line in The Vision of Sin. archive.org
    • The Tennyson quotation appears in the first edition of Poems, published in 1842. archive.org
    • Can occurs paired with cup in the quoted ale-bench passage in Sir John Oldcastle. en.wikisource.org
    • The ale-bench quotation belongs to a work first published in 1600. en.wikisource.org
20. 20
    verbobsoletetransitive

    To know; to have knowledge of.

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

    1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis

    ca.1360-1387, William Langland, Piers Plowman I can no Latin, quod she.

    Similarken

    Note

    Here the verb takes a direct object, the way know does. Langland's "I can rymes of Robyn Hood" means "I know rhymes of Robin Hood", and Shakespeare's priest "that defunctive music can" knows the funeral music. This is the older meaning that the "know how to" modal grew from, and con is a doublet of the same word. Use it only to quote or imitate older English. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 7 facts

    • In this historical sense, can means know and takes a direct object. en.wiktionary.org
    • The Robin Hood quotation occurs in Langland's Piers Plowman; can means know. Editions vary between can and kan. gutenberg.org
    • The quotation's wording is attested with can. gutenberg.org
    • Shakespeare's The Phoenix and the Turtle contains the priest quotation, and defunctive means funereal. en.wiktionary.org
    • The modal meaning developed from the older verb meaning know, represented by Old English cunnan. en.wiktionary.org
    • Old English cunnan also supplied the auxiliary meaning know how. en.wiktionary.org
    • Con and can are etymological doublets. en.wiktionary.org
21. 21
    chimney potnouncountable

    A chimney pot; the pipe-like top fitted to a chimney stack.

    Smoke curled from the chimney can on the cottage roof.

    The gale blew a can off the chimney and into the road.

    Similarchimneypot

22. 22
    verbManglishSinglish

    To be fine, acceptable, or possible; with 'liao' or 'already', to be enough.
23. 23
    interjectionManglishSinglish

    OK, sure, or fine, indicating approval or acknowledgment.
24. 24
    verbslang

    In golf, to hole the ball, especially with a putt.
25. 25
    noun

    A flat-topped, drum-shaped buoy marking the port side of a channel, unlike the conical nun marking starboard.
26. 26
    noun

    A protective cover for the fuel element in a nuclear reactor, sealing the fuel from the coolant.
27. 27
    verb

    To cover a nuclear reactor's fuel element with a protective casing or cladding.
28. 28
    verbnonstandardIndia

    Used before words such as able, possible or allowed, where standard English would use a form of be, as in can able to.
29. 29
    interjectionManglishSinglish

    In Singapore and Malaysian English, said to reassure someone that something is fine or will work out.
30. 30
    particleManglishSinglish

    In Singapore and Malaysian English, tacked onto a question to check whether the listener agrees or is fine with something.
31. 31
    nounslang

    In Scientology, usually in the plural, one of the two metal cylinders a person holds during auditing, wired to an E-meter.