shouldn't

Pluralshouldn'ts

1. 1
   verb

   Contraction of 'should not'; used to express that something is inadvisable, improper, or unlikely to be the case.

   Drivers shouldn't use their phones behind the wheel.

   The package shouldn't take more than two days to arrive.

   Note

   A negative built the usual English way, by attaching -n't to the modal should. Two constructions are worth knowing. Followed by have, it passes judgment on something already done (you shouldn't have said that). Followed by be and an -ing verb, it admits to something still under way, as in Colin Robinson's "I shouldn't be telling you all this," where the speaker carries on regardless.

   You shouldn't have waited up for me.

   I really shouldn't be eating this cake.

2. 2
   nouncolloquialcountable

   Something that should not be done: an action treated as off-limits or unwise.

   Skipping the warm-up is a definite shouldn't for new runners.

   The employee handbook covers all the shoulds and shouldn'ts of office etiquette.

   Similarno-no, don't

   Oppositemust, should

   Note

   Here the negative auxiliary has been turned into a noun, and it rarely travels alone. It usually pairs with shoulds, on the model of dos and don'ts, to sort advice into two columns. Working Mother (2008) imagines a list of "shoulds" and "shouldn'ts." The plural is simply shouldn'ts, with no second apostrophe, so the word keeps the look of a contraction even when it names a thing.

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