From Middle English can, first and third person singular of connen, cunnen ("to be able, know how"), from Old English cann, first and third person singular of cunnan ("to know how"), from Proto-West Germanic *kunnan, from Proto-Germanic *kunnaną, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (whence also know).

• • (RP, Ireland) IPA: /ˈkæn/, [ˈkʰan], [ˈkʰæn]
  • (America, Canada) IPA: /ˈkæn/, [ˈkʰæn], [ˈkʰɛən ~ ˈkʰeən]
    • (Philadelphia) IPA: /ˈkɛn/
  • (Australia) IPA: /ˈkæn/, [ˈkʰæn], [ˈkʰɛːn]
  • (New Zealand) IPA: /ˈkɛn/, [ˈkʰɛˑn]
  • IPA: /kən/, [kʰən], [kʰn̩]

can (can, present participle able; simple past could, past participle couth)

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

   Synonyms: be able to

   Antonyms: cannot, can't

   She can speak English, French, and German.

   I can play football.

   Can you remember your fifth birthday?

   • 1449, Reginald Pecock, Represser of over-much weeting [blaming] of the Clergie:

     prouyng which eny clerk can or woel or mai make bi eny maner euydence of resoun or of Scripture, and namelich of resoun into the contrarie.

   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene ii]:

     If thou canst awake by four o' the clock, / I prithee call me. Sleep hath seized me wholly.

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

   Synonyms: may

   You can go outside and play when you're finished with your homework.

   Can I use your pen?

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

   Can it be Friday already?

   Teenagers can really try their parents' patience.

   Animals can experience emotions.

   • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC ↗:

     The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. […] Can those harmless but refined fellow-diners be the selfish cads whose gluttony and personal appearance so raised your contemptuous wrath on your arrival?

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

   Can you hear that?

   I can feel the baby moving inside me.

5. (obsolete, transitive) To know.

   Synonyms: cognize, grok, ken

   • ca.1360-1387, William Langland, Piers Plowman

     I can rimes of Robin Hood.

   • ca.1360-1387, William Langland, Piers Plowman

     I can no Latin, quod she.

   • 1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC ↗:

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

6. (India, nonstandard, proscribed) To be (followed by a word like able, possible, allowed).

• French: pouvoir
• German: können
• Italian: potere
• Portuguese: conseguir (be able to), saber (know how to), poder
• Russian: мочь
• Spanish: poder, saber

• French: pouvoir
• German: können, dürfen
• Italian: potere
• Portuguese: poder
• Russian: мочь
• Spanish: poder

From Middle English canne, from Old English canne, from Proto-Germanic *kannǭ.

• (RP, America) enPR: kăn, IPA: /ˈkæn/
• (Australia, Southern England) IPA: /ˈkæːn/
• (æ-tensing) IPA: [ˈkeən]

can (plural cans)

1. A more or less cylindrical and often metal container or vessel.

   Synonyms: tin

2. A container used to carry and dispense water for plants (a watering can).
3. (archaic) A chamber pot.
   1. (US, slang) a toilet or lavatory.

      (toilet) Synonyms: Thesaurus:chamber pot, Thesaurus:toilet

      (place with a toilet) Synonyms: Thesaurus:bathroom

      Shit or get off the can.

      Bob's in the can. You can wait a few minutes or just leave it with me.

      • 1951, J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC ↗, page 35 ↗:

        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.

      • 1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure

        If he was going to hide out in the can, he can just stay there & sleep in the tub.

4. (US, slang) Buttocks.
5. (slang) Jail or prison.

   Bob’s in the can. He won’t be back for a few years.

6. (slang, in the plural) Headphones.
7. (archaic) A drinking cup.
   • 1600, [Michael Drayton, Richard Hathwaye, Anthony Munday, Robert Wilson], The First Part of the True and Honorable Historie, of the Life of Sir John Old-castle, the Good Lord Cobham. […]‎, London: […] [V[alentine] S[immes]] for Thomas Pauier, […], →OCLC ↗:

     VVhen the vulgar ſort / Sit on their Ale-bench, vvith their cups and kannes, / Matters of ſtate be not their common talke, / Nor pure religion by their lips prophande.

   • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene iii]:

     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.

   • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “A Vision of Sin”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC ↗, page 218 ↗:

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

8. (nautical) A cylindrical buoy or marker used to denote a port-side lateral mark
9. A chimney pot.
10. (slang, in the plural) An E-meter used in Scientology auditing.
11. (US, slang) An ounce (or sometimes, two ounces) of marijuana.
    • 1970, California. Supreme Court, Reports of Cases Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of California:

      […] prosecution for selling and giving away marijuana, the evidence clearly constituted substantial proof that a package purchased by defendant contained marijuana where he requested "four cans" of marijuana to be delivered to himself and […]

12. A protective cover for the fuel element in a nuclear reactor.
13. (vulgar, slang, North American) The breasts of a woman.

• French: bidon, canette
• German: Blechdose, Kanister
• Italian: lattina
• Portuguese: lata
• Russian: бидо́н
• Spanish: lata

• French: arrosoir
• German: Gießkanne, Kanne
• Italian: annaffiatoio
• Portuguese: regador
• Russian: ле́йка
• Spanish: regadera

• French: boîte de conserve
• German: Blechdose, Konservendose
• Italian: scatoletta
• Portuguese: lata
• Russian: консе́рвная ба́нка
• Spanish: lata

• French: WC, chiottes
• German: WC, Klo
• Portuguese: vaso

• French: fesses, boule, miches
• German: Arschbacken, Pobacken
• Italian: chiappe
• Portuguese: bunda, traseiro
• Russian: я́годицы

can (cans, present participle canning; simple past and past participle canned)

1. (transitive) To seal in a can.

   They canned air to sell as a novelty to tourists.

2. (transitive) To preserve by heating and sealing in a jar or can.

   They spent August canning fruit and vegetables.

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

   He canned the whole project because he thought it would fail.

4. (transitive, slang) To shut up.

   Can your gob.

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

   The boss canned him for speaking out.

6. (golf, slang, transitive) To hole the ball.
7. (transitive) To cover (the fuel element in a nuclear reactor) with a protective cover.

• (discard) bin, dump, scrap; see also Thesaurus:junk
• (shut up) can it, stifle; see also Thesaurus:stop talking or Thesaurus:make silent
• (dismiss an employee) axe, let go, sack; see also Thesaurus:lay off

• French: conserver
• German: einmachen
• Italian: inscatolare
• Portuguese: enlatar
• Russian: консерви́ровать
• Spanish: enlatar

• French: jeter
• German: abbrechen
• Italian: scartare
• Portuguese: descartar, jogar fora
• Spanish: descartar

• French: taire
• German: die Klappe halten, den Mund halten
• Italian: tacere, chiudere
• Portuguese: calar
• Spanish: cerrar

• French: virer, limoger
• German: kündigen, feuern, rausschmeißen
• Italian: licenziare
• Portuguese: demitir, mandar embora
• Spanish: echar, despedir

Abbreviation

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

can

1. (inorganic compound, uncountable) ceric ammonium nitrate
2. (computing, manufacturing, automotive, countable) Abbreviation of controller area network
3. (computing, countable) Init of campus area network
4. (South Africa, countable) Acronym of community action network
5. Init of consistent and asymptotically normal a statistic estimator T_n(X₁, X₂, ..., X_n) is CAN (consistent and asymptotically normal) if ....
6. (AU, countable) Acronym of court attendance notice

From Spanish CAN.

1. (initialism) The Andean Community of Nations.

• Spanish: CAN