# can

Pronunciation: say "KAN" /ˈkæn/

## Verb

1. To be able to do something, through ability, skill, knowledge, or opportunity (I can lift it; She can speak three languages).
   - Simple: To be able to do something or know how to do it.
   - _I can lift it if you hold the door._
   - _We can't see the stage from our seats._
2. To have the potential to; to be possible for.
   - Simple: Used to say that something is possible or sometimes happens.
   - _Even small doses can be dangerous._
   - _It can get very cold up there at night._
3. To be permitted or enabled to do something; may.
   - Simple: Used to give or ask for permission, as in 'can I use your pen?'.
   - _You can't smoke in here._
   - _Members can bring one guest._
5. Used to ask someone, usually politely, to do or permit something. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Used to ask someone politely to do something, as in 'can you help me?'.
   - _Can you give me a hand with these boxes?_
   - _Can someone open a window?_
8. To discard, scrap, or terminate an idea, project, program, or plan.
   - Simple: To cancel or give up a plan, project or idea.
   - _The council canned the bypass scheme on cost grounds._
   - _We may have to can the trip if it rains._
9. To dismiss from employment; to fire. *(slang, US)*
   - Simple: To fire someone from a job, in American slang.
   - _He was canned for missing too many shifts._
   - _Any more mistakes and they'll can the whole team._
10. To seal food or drink in cans or jars so that it keeps, or more generally to pack any product into cans.
   - Simple: To preserve food or drink in sealed cans or jars, or to pack other products into cans.
   - _Each summer we can tomatoes, beans and peaches from the garden._
   - _Canned peaches taste of summer in January._
4. To be able to or know how to do something, with the verb left out when clear from context. *(Manglish, Singlish)*
   - Simple: In Singapore and Malaysian English, 'can' used on its own to mean 'be able to'.
   - _"You read Chinese?" "Can, but only the simplified characters."_
   - _"You drive manual or not?" "Can, no problem."_
15. To stop or put a lid on something; to shut up. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To stop talking or stop doing something, in slang, as in 'can it!'.
   - _Can it, the baby's asleep._
   - _The sergeant told us to can the whispering._

## Noun

6. A sealed metal container, cylindrical or box-shaped, in which food or drink is preserved and sold.
   - Simple: A sealed metal tin holding food or drink.
   - _Recycle your cans and bottles._
   - _For a week we lived on food out of a can._
7. A container, usually metal, for holding or carrying things, especially liquids, such as a milk can, gas can, or watering can.
   - Simple: A container, usually made of metal, for holding or carrying things, especially liquids.
   - _The old milk cans stood by the farm gate._
   - _Bring a can of paint and a brush._
11. A toilet or lavatory. *(slang, US)*
   - Simple: The toilet, in American slang, as in 'Where's the can?'
   - _The bar's can was down a flight of stairs._
   - _Excuse me, I have to hit the can._
12. Jail or prison, chiefly after 'in the'. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Prison, in slang, as in 'in the can'.
   - _Half the gang ended up in the can._
   - _She's out of the can and looking for work._
13. The buttocks. *(slang, Canada, US)*
   - Simple: A childish or rude word for the bottom, in North America.
   - _The coach told them to get off their cans._
   - _A boot in the can sent him through the door._
14. Usually in the plural, a woman's breasts. *(slang, Canada, US)*
   - Simple: A crude word for a woman's breasts, usually in the plural.
   - _He was fired for a remark about a colleague's cans._
   - _Nobody wanted his opinion on anybody's cans._
16. In the plural, headphones, especially the large over-ear kind used in studios. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Headphones, in slang, as in 'a pair of cans'.
   - _Every DJ in the booth had cans round their neck._
   - _These cans leak sound, so keep the volume down._
17. A quantity of marijuana amounting to an ounce, or occasionally two. *(slang, US)*
   - Simple: In US drug slang, an ounce of marijuana.
21. A chimney pot; the pipe-like top fitted to a chimney stack.
   - Simple: A pot on top of a chimney.
   - _Smoke curled from the chimney can on the cottage roof._
   - _The gale blew a can off the chimney and into the road._

## Noun

18. A chamber pot. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: In old use, a chamber pot.
19. A drinking cup; a tankard. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: In old use, a drinking cup or tankard.

## Verb

20. To know; to have knowledge of. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: In old use, to know something.

## Other meanings

- (verb) To be fine, acceptable, or possible; with 'liao' or 'already', to be enough.
- (interjection) OK, sure, or fine, indicating approval or acknowledgment.
- (verb) In golf, to hole the ball, especially with a putt.
- (noun) A flat-topped, drum-shaped buoy marking the port side of a channel, unlike the conical nun marking starboard.
- (noun) A protective cover for the fuel element in a nuclear reactor, sealing the fuel from the coolant.
- (verb) To cover a nuclear reactor's fuel element with a protective casing or cladding.
- (verb) Used before words such as able, possible or allowed, where standard English would use a form of be, as in can able to.
- (interjection) In Singapore and Malaysian English, said to reassure someone that something is fine or will work out.
- (particle) In Singapore and Malaysian English, tacked onto a question to check whether the listener agrees or is fine with something.
- (noun) In Scientology, usually in the plural, one of the two metal cylinders a person holds during auditing, wired to an E-meter.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–5, 20** — From Middle English can, from Old English cunnan ("to know how"), from Proto-Germanic *kunnaną, from the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵneh₃-, which also gave English "know." It is related to "canny" and "cunning."
**Meanings 6–19, 21** — Proto-Germanic *kannǭ ("can, tankard, mug, cup") gave Old English canne, meaning "glass, container, cup, jar," which became Middle English canne.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/can (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).