can

/kæn/

Học thuật

Thân thiện

A janitor empties a trash can in the school hallway.

Definition

Noun:
- Airtight container: A cylindrical metal container used for preserving food, drink, paint, or other substances.
- The contents of such a container: The quantity of something held inside a can.
- (Slang) Toilet: A room or fixture for defecation and urination.
- (Slang) Jail: A prison.
Verb (Transitive):
- To preserve in a can: To seal food in an airtight metal container for long-term storage.
- (Informal) To dismiss or fire: To terminate someone's employment.
- (Informal) To stop or cancel: To bring something to an end.
- (Slang) To record: To capture audio or video on tape or disc.
Modal Verb:
- To express ability: Used to indicate that someone or something has the skill, power, or capacity to do something.
- To express permission: Used to ask for or grant authorization to do something.
- To express possibility: Used to indicate that something is theoretically or occasionally possible.
- To make a request or offer: Used in polite questions or when offering help.

Usage Examples

Noun:
- She opened a can of soup for lunch.
- He drank the whole can of soda.
- I need to use the can. (informal)
Verb:
- My grandmother used to can tomatoes from her garden.
- He got canned from his job for being late. (informal)
- They canned the project due to budget cuts. (informal)
- The band canned their new album last month. (slang)
Modal Verb:
- She can speak three languages fluently. (ability)
- Can I borrow your pen? (permission)
- It can get very cold here in winter. (possibility)
- Can I help you with those bags? (offer)

Advanced Usage

"Can of worms": A situation that, once started, will lead to many complicated problems.
- Asking about the company's finances opened a real can of worms.
"In the can": Completed and ready for use, especially for a film or recording.
- The director announced that the movie was finally in the can.
Modal Verb - Negative Form ("cannot/can't"): Used to express impossibility, lack of permission, or inability.
- You cannot smoke in here. (prohibition)
- I can't lift this box; it's too heavy. (inability)
- That can't be true! (impossibility)

Variants and Related Words

Canned (adj): Preserved in a can; also used figuratively to mean pre-recorded or artificial (e.g., ).
Canning (n): The process of preserving food in cans.
Cannery (n): A factory where food is canned.
Could (modal verb): The past tense form of "can," also used for conditional or more polite expressions.

Synonyms

Related Phrasal Verbs

Can it!: (Slang) A command to stop talking or to be quiet.
- Just can it, will you? I'm trying to concentrate.
Carry the can (for someone/something): (Informal) To accept blame or responsibility for something, especially for a mistake.
- The manager had to carry the can for the team's failure.

Related Idioms

Kick the can down the road: To delay dealing with a problem or making a decision.
- The government just keeps kicking the can down the road on tax reform.
Garbage in, garbage out: Often abbreviated as GIGO. The principle that flawed or poor-quality input will produce faulty output. (While not containing "can," it is conceptually related to the idea of what you put a system/container).
- If you program the computer with incorrect data, you'll get wrong results. It's garbage in, garbage out.

A janitor empties a trash can in the school hallway.

Noun

a room or building equipped with one or more toilets
a plumbing fixture for defecation and urination
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?
a buoy with a round bottom and conical top
the quantity contained in a can
airtight sealed metal container for food or drink or paint etc.

Verb

terminate the employment of; discharge from an office or position
- The boss fired his secretary today
- The company terminated 25% of its workers
preserve in a can or tin
- tinned foods are not very tasty

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