Can

11 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  May \May\ (m[=a]), v. [imp. {Might} (m[imac]t)] [AS. pres. maeg
     I am able, pret. meahte, mihte; akin to D. mogen, G.
     m["o]gen, OHG. mugan, magan, Icel. mega, Goth. magan, Russ.
     moche. [root]103. Cf. {Dismay}, {Main} strength, {Might}. The
     old imp. mought is obsolete, except as a provincial word.]
     An auxiliary verb qualifying the meaning of another verb, by


     expressing:
     (a) Ability, competency, or possibility; -- now oftener
         expressed by {can}.
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               How may a man, said he, with idle speech,
               Be won to spoil the castle of his health!
                                                    --Spenser.
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               For what he [the king] may do is of two kinds; what
               he may do as just, and what he may do as possible.
                                                    --Bacon.
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               For of all sad words of tongue or pen
               The saddest are these: "It might have been."
                                                    --Whittier.
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     (b) Liberty; permission; allowance.
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               Thou mayst be no longer steward.     --Luke xvi. 2.
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     (c) Contingency or liability; possibility or probability.
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               Though what he learns he speaks, and may advance
               Some general maxims, or be right by chance. --Pope.
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     (d) Modesty, courtesy, or concession, or a desire to soften a
         question or remark.
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               How old may Phillis be, you ask.     --Prior.
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     (e) Desire or wish, as in prayer, imprecation, benediction,
         and the like. "May you live happily." --Dryden.
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     {May be}, & {It may be}, are used as equivalent to
        {possibly}, {perhaps}, {maybe}, {by chance},
        {peradventure}. See 1st {Maybe}.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Can \Can\, n. [OE. & AS. canne; akin to D. Kan, G. Kanne, OHG.
     channa, Sw. Kanna, Dan. kande.]
     1. A drinking cup; a vessel for holding liquids. --[Shak. ]
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              Fill the cup and fill can,
              Have a rouse before the morn.         --Tennyson.
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     2. A vessel or case of tinned iron or of sheet metal, of
        various forms, but usually cylindrical; as, a can of
        tomatoes; an oil can; a milk can.
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     Note: A can may be a cylinder open at the top, as for
           receiving the sliver from a carding machine, or with a
           removable cover or stopper, as for holding tea, spices,
           milk, oysters, etc., or with handle and spout, as for
           holding oil, or hermetically sealed, in canning meats,
           fruits, etc. The name is also sometimes given to the
           small glass or earthenware jar used in canning.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Can \Can\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Canned}; p. pr. & vb. n.
     {Canning}.]
     To preserve by putting in sealed cans [U. S.] "Canned meats"
     --W. D. Howells.
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     {Canned goods}, a general name for fruit, vegetables, meat,
        or fish, preserved in hermetically sealed cans.

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Can \Can\, v. t. & i.
  
     Note: [The transitive use is obsolete.] [imp. {Could}.] [OE.
           cunnen, cannen (1st sing. pres. I can), to know, know
           how, be able, AS. cunnan, 1st sing. pres. ic cann or
           can, pl. cunnon, 1st sing. imp. c[=u][eth]e (for
           cun[eth]e); p. p. c[=u][eth] (for cun[eth]); akin to
           OS. Kunnan, D. Kunnen, OHG. chunnan, G. k["o]nnen,
           Icel. kunna, Goth. Kunnan, and E. ken to know. The
           present tense I can (AS. ic cann) was originally a
           preterit, meaning I have known or Learned, and hence I
           know, know how. [root]45. See {Ken}, {Know}; cf. {Con},
           {Cunning}, {Uncouth}.]
     1. To know; to understand. [Obs.]
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              I can rimes of Robin Hood.            --Piers
                                                    Plowman.
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              I can no Latin, quod she.             --Piers
                                                    Plowman.
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              Let the priest in surplice white,
              That defunctive music can.            --Shak.
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     2. To be able to do; to have power or influence. [Obs.]
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              The will of Him who all things can.   --Milton.
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              For what, alas, can these my single arms? --Shak.
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              M[ae]c[ae]nas and Agrippa, who can most with
              C[ae]sar.                             --Beau. & Fl.
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     3. To be able; -- followed by an infinitive without to; as, I
        can go, but do not wish to.
  
     Syn: {Can but}, {Can not but}. It is an error to use the
          former of these phrases where the sens requires the
          latter. If we say, "I can but perish if I go," "But"
          means only, and denotes that this is all or the worst
          that can happen. When the apostle Peter said. "We can
          not but speak of the things which we have seen and
          heard." he referred to a moral constraint or necessety
          which rested upon him and his associates; and the
          meaning was, We cannot help speaking, We cannot refrain
          from speaking. This idea of a moral necessity or
          constraint is of frequent occurrence, and is also
          expressed in the phrase, "I can not help it." Thus we
          say. "I can not but hope," "I can not but believe," "I
          can not but think," "I can not but remark," etc., in
          cases in which it would be an error to use the phrase
          can but.
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                Yet he could not but acknowledge to himself that
                there was something calculated to impress awe, . .
                . in the sudden appearances and vanishings . . .
                of the masque                       --De Quincey.
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                Tom felt that this was a rebuff for him, and could
                not but understand it as a left-handed hit at his
                employer.                           --Dickens.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Can \Can\ (k[a^]n),
     an obs. form of began, imp. & p. p. of {Begin}, sometimes
     used in old poetry.
  
     Note: [See {Gan}.]
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                 With gentle words he can faile gree. --Spenser.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  can
       n 1: airtight sealed metal container for food or drink or paint
            etc. [syn: {tin}, {tin can}]
       2: the quantity contained in a can [syn: {canful}]
       3: a buoy with a round bottom and conical top [syn: {can buoy}]
       4: the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on; "he
          deserves a good kick in the butt"; "are you going to sit
          on your fanny and do nothing?" [syn: {buttocks}, {nates},
          {arse}, {butt}, {backside}, {bum}, {buns}, {fundament}, {hindquarters},
           {hind end}, {keister}, {posterior}, {prat}, {rear}, {rear
          end}, {rump}, {stern}, {seat}, {tail}, {tail end}, {tooshie},
           {tush}, {bottom}, {behind}, {derriere}, {fanny}, {ass}]
       5: a plumbing fixture for defecation and urination [syn: {toilet},
           {commode}, {crapper}, {pot}, {potty}, {stool}, {throne}]
       6: a room equipped with toilet facilities [syn: {toilet}, {lavatory},
           {lav}, {john}, {privy}, {bathroom}]
       v 1: preserve in a can or tin; "tinned foods are not very tasty"
            [syn: {tin}, {put up}]
       2: terminate the employment of; "The boss fired his secretary
          today"; "The company terminated 25% of its workers" [syn:
          {fire}, {give notice}, {dismiss}, {give the axe}, {send
          away}, {sack}, {force out}, {give the sack}, {terminate}]
          [ant: {hire}]
       [also: {canning}, {canned}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  184 Moby Thesaurus words for "can":
     Casanova, WC, arse, ass, ax, backhouse, backside, bag, barrel,
     basement, basket, bathroom, battleship, battlewagon, be able,
     be permitted, be up to, bedpan, behind, boot, boot out, bottle,
     bounce, box, box up, break, bum, bump, burden, bust, butt,
     calaboose, can do, capital ship, capsule, carton, case, cashier,
     cask, chamber, chamber pot, chaser, cheeks, chemical closet,
     chemical toilet, chokey, clink, closet, comfort station, commode,
     convenience, cooler, coop, crapper, crate, cut it, cut the mustard,
     defrock, degrade, demote, deplume, depose, deprive, derriere,
     destroyer, disbar, discharge, disemploy, dismiss, displace,
     displume, do up, drum out, earth closet, encase, encyst, expel,
     fanny, fill, fire, freight, fundament, furlough, give the ax,
     give the gate, hack it, hamper, have permission, head, heap,
     heap up, hind end, hoosegow, jar, jerry, john, johnny,
     johnny house, jordan, jug, keister, kick, kick out, kick upstairs,
     lade, lady-killer, latrine, lavatory, lay off, let go, let out,
     load, lockup, loo, make it, make redundant, make the grade, masher,
     mass, may, necessary, outhouse, pack, pack away, package, parcel,
     pen, pension off, philander, philanderer, pile, piss pot, pocket,
     pokey, possess authority, pot, potty, potty-chair, powder room,
     prat, prison, privy, put up, quod, read out of, release, remove,
     replace, rest room, retire, rusty-dusty, sack, separate forcibly,
     ship, slammer, stack, stern, stir, stool, store, stow, strip,
     superannuate, surplus, suspend, tail, take charge, tank, terminate,
     throne, thunder mug, tin, toilet, toilet room, tuchis, turn off,
     turn out, tush, tushy, unfrock, urinal, washroom, water closet,
     womanizer
  
  

From Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (Version 1.9, June 2002) [vera]:

  CAN
       Complete Area Networks (SNI)
       
       

From Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (Version 1.9, June 2002) [vera]:

  CAN
       Controller Area Network
       
       

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  can vt. To abort a job on a time-sharing system. Used esp. when the
     person doing the deed is an operator, as in "canned from the
     {{console}}". Frequently used in an imperative sense, as in "Can that
     print job, the LPT just popped a sprocket!" Synonymous with {gun}. It is
     said that the ASCII character with mnemonic CAN (0011000) was used as a
     kill-job character on some early OSes, but this is more likely to be
     short for `cancel'. Alternatively, this term may derive from mainstream
     slang `canned' for being laid off or fired.
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  CAN
       
          {Cancel}