CAN, n. A cup or vessel for liquors, in modern times made of metal; as a can of ale.

CAN, v.i. pret. could, which is from another root. [See Could.]

To know. [Not in use.] – Spenser.

A cup or vessel for liquors, in modern times made of metal; as, a can of ale.

1. To be able; to have sufficient strength or physical power. One man can lift a weight which another can not. A horse can run a certain distance in a given time.
2. To have means, or instruments, which supply power or ability. A man can build a house, or fit out a ship, if he has the requisite property. A nation can not prosecute a war, without money or credit. I will lend you a thousand dollars if I can.
3. To be possible. Nicodemus said, How can these things be? – John iii.
4. To have adequate moral power. A man can indulge in pleasure, or he can refrain. He can restrain his appetites, if he will.
5. To have just or legal competent power, that is right; to be free from any restraint of moral, civil or political obligation, or from any positive prohibition. We can use a highway for travel, for this is permitted by law. A man can or can not hold an office. The Jews could not eat certain kinds of animals which were declared to be unclean. The House of Commons in England can impeach, but the House of Lords only can try impeachments. In general, we can do whatever neither the laws of God nor of man forbid. How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God. – Gen. xxxix. I can not go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more. – Num. xxii.
6. To have natural strength, or capacity; to be susceptible of; to be able or free to undergo any change, or produce any effect, by the laws and constitution of nature, or by divine appointment. Silver can be melted, but can not be changed into gold. Can the rush grow without mire? – Job viii. Can the fig-tree bear olive berries? – James iii. Can faith save him? – James ii.
7. To have competent strength, ability, fortitude, patience, &c., in a passive sense. He can not bear reproof. I can not endure this impertinence. This is a hard saying; who can hear it. – John vi.
8. To have the requisite knowledge, experience or skill. Young men are not admitted members of college, till they can translate Latin and Greek. An astronomer can calculate an eclipse, though he can not make a coat.
9. To have strength of inclination or motives sufficient to overcome obstacles, impediments, inconvenience or other objection. I have married a wife, and therefore I can not come. – Luke xiv. I can not rise and give thee … yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him. – Luke xi.
10. To have sufficient capacity; as, a vessel can not hold or contain the whole quantity.

1. an obs. form of began, imp. *** p. p. of Begin, sometimes used in old poetry. [See Gan.]
   
   

   With gentle words he can faile gree.
   Spenser.

2. A drinking cup; a vessel for holding liquids.
   
   
   [Shak. ]

   Fill the cup and fill can,
   Have a rouse before the morn.
   Tennyson.

3. To preserve by putting in sealed cans
   
   
   [U. S.] "Canned meats" W. D. Howells.

   Canned goods, a general name for fruit, vegetables, meat, or fish, preserved in hermetically sealed cans.

4. To know; to understand.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   I can rimes of Rodin Hood.
   Piers Plowman.

   I can no Latin, quod she.
   Piers Plowman.

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

5. 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.
   
   

   * 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.

6. To be able to do; to have power or influence.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   The will of Him who all things can.
   Milton.

   For what, alas, can these my single arms?
   Shak.

   Mæcænas and Agrippa, who can most with Cæsar.
   Beau. *** Fl.

7. 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.

   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.

   Tom felt that this was a rebuff for him, and could not but understand it as a left-handed hit at his employer.
   Dickens.