Dictionary

can't en · VERB

Pronunciation

Etymology

From can + -n't, since 1706 or earlier.

Meanings

1. Cannot (negative modal auxiliary); be unable to; not have the ability to (whether due to lacking relevant strength or skill or knowledge or supplies, or due to logical impossibility, etc).
   • To make Capons […] [S]ome for this Purpoſe make it their Buſineſs after Harveſt-time to go to Markets for buying up Chickens, and between Michaelmas and All-hollantide caponize the Cocks, when they have got large enough to have Stones [i.e., testes] of ſuch a Bigneſs that they may be pulled out; for if they are too little, it can't be done; […] 1750, W[illiam] Ellis, The Country Housewife's Family Companion: Or Profitable Directions for Whatever Relates to the Management and Good Œconomy of the Domestick Concerns of a Country Life, According to the Present Practice of the Country Gentleman's, the Yeoman's, the Farmer's, &c. Wives, in the Counties of Hertford, Bucks, and Other Parts of England: Shewing how Great Savings may be Made in Housekeeping: … With Variety of Curious Matters … The Whole Founded on Near Thirty Years Experience, London: Printed for James Hodges, at the Looking-glass, facing St. Magnus Church, London-Bridge; and B. Collins, bookseller, at Salisbury, →OCLC, page 157:
   • I can’t quite get it to work.
   • The butler can’t be the murderer — he can't have killed her — because he was in London that evening.
   • Shut up, can’t you?
   • Shepard: Mordin, walk away. Mordin: Can't do that, Shepard. Shepard: I don't have a choice here. Walk away, or I will fire. 2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Tuchanka:
2. To be forbidden to; to be not permitted to.
   • You can’t enter the hall without a ticket.
3. (euphemistic, slang) To be unwilling to; to not have the desire of; to don’t want to.
   • Will you come to dinner with us tonight? Can't; already have plans this evening.

Forms

Antonyms

must · can · be able to · can · have to · be able to

Coordinates

have to · mayn't · couldn't · oughtn't · won't · mightn't · wouldn't · shan't · shouldn't · must

Deriveds

Republicant · you can't say fairer than that · African't