cannot
Something that cannot be done.
Noun
- Something that cannot be done.
- the cans and cannots
- A person who cannot do (something).
Origin
From Middle English can not, cannot, cannouȝt, etc. (compare Old English ne cann), equivalent to can + not.
Forms
Verb
- Can not; be unable to (whether due to physical inability, logical impossibility, etc).
- I cannot open the window. It is stuck.
- The butler cannot be the murderer, he cannot have killed her, because he was in another city at the time.
- Be forbidden or not permitted to
- The Pupil after his Pupillarity, had granted a Diſcharge to one of the Co-tutors, which did extinguiſh the whole Debt of that Co-tutor, and conſequently of all the reſt, they being all correi debendi, lyable by one...
- The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation. - 2013...
- “If China seeks to disrupt the global order, then China cannot continue to be party to international organizations that seek to preserve that order,” Republican Representative Frank Lucas, the House bill’s sponsor,...