Definition of "can"

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.

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

Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning vortex, and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.

2013 July–August, Lee S. Langston, “The Adaptable Gas Turbine”, in American Scientist

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

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, [Act II, scene ii]

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?

1922, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest

Teenagers can be so cruel, and nicknames cut deep.

2009, Annette Sym, Simply Too Good to be True, Greenleaf Book Group, page 4

I can rimes of Robin Hood.

ca.1360-1387, William Langland, Piers Plowman

I can no Latin, quod she.

ca.1360-1387, William Langland, Piers Plowman

Let the priest in surplice white, / That defunctive music can.The spelling has been modernized.

1593, 1896

Importance of Identifying Leaf: Identify Plants: If we can able to identify leaf, we can easily able to identify plants.

2011 November 29, Tai-hoon Kim, Hojjat Adeli, Carlos Ramos, Byeong-Ho Kang, Signal Processing, Image Processing and Pattern Recognition: International Conferences, SIP 2011, Held as Part of the Future Generation Information Technology Conference, FGIT 2011, in Conjunction with GDC 2011, Jeju Island, Korea, December 8-10, 2011. Proceedings, Springer Science & Business Media, page 114

Children in need of care and protection can allowed to be placed in foster care based on the orders of the CWC. The selection of the foster family is based on the family's ability, intent, capacity, and prior experience of taking care […]

2018 February 15, Asha Bajpai, Child Rights in India: Law, Policy, and Practice, Oxford University Press

It can possible to design the ruleset refreshes that allow them to subsequently run at precise interludes and these keep informed.

2020 May 22, Pardeep Kumar, Vasaki Ponnusamy, Vishal Jain, Industrial Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems: Transforming the Conventional to Digital: Transforming the Conventional to Digital, IGI Global, page 226

The undercover cop never liked the Monkey Man / Even back in childhood, he wanted to see him in the can

1988, The Traveling Wilburys (lyrics and music), “Tweeter and the Monkey Man”, in The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1

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.

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, […]

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.

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, [Act II, scene iii]

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

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

[…] 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 […]

1970, California. Supreme Court, Reports of Cases Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of California

My next stop is Oxford, which has also grown with the addition of new platforms to accommodate the Chiltern Railways service to London via Bicester - although, short sightedly, the planned electrification from Paddington was canned. Evidence of the volte-face can be seen along the line at places such as Radley, where mast piles are already sunk or lie discarded at the lineside.

2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, pages 67–68

As a result of his refusal, the employee was subsequently canned in 2015 on the basis of "professional inadequacy" and failing to embody the "party" atmosphere that the consultancy was trying to cultivate.

2022 November 25, B. Cost, “Man wins legal right to be 'boring' at work, gets $3K from company”, in New York Post‎, NYP Holdings, retrieved 2022-11-27

I thought I had canned it, but it just missed, and I tapped in the second one for a par.

1958, Dick Mayer, How to Think and Swing Like a Golf Champion, page 186