"unable to can" meaning in English

See unable to can in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

Etymology: From can't even (“to be unable to express one's feelings about an overwhelming situation”), with the implication that one has lost the capacity of English due to shock. Head templates: {{head|en|phrase}} unable to can
  1. (slang, humorous) Rendered utterly speechless or overwhelmed with a situation. Tags: humorous, slang
    Sense id: en-unable_to_can-en-phrase-9TdYJjBM Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
{
  "etymology_text": "From can't even (“to be unable to express one's feelings about an overwhelming situation”), with the implication that one has lost the capacity of English due to shock.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "unable to can",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2016 April 25, Phoebe Robinson, “The Catch Recap: A Bug's Life”, in Vulture, archived from the original on 2023-06-21:",
          "text": "I literally cannot with William. I will continue to be unable to can with this fool.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 March 25, Harriet Johnston, “Woman reveals her mother has placed a raw ONION in the corner of every room in the house in a bizarre attempt to ward off coronavirus”, in Daily Mail, London: DMG Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-10-14:",
          "text": "She said: 'This is the peak of the whatsapp mother's cult. I am unable to can lmao.'",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Rendered utterly speechless or overwhelmed with a situation."
      ],
      "id": "en-unable_to_can-en-phrase-9TdYJjBM",
      "links": [
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "speechless",
          "speechless#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "overwhelmed",
          "overwhelmed#Adjective"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang, humorous) Rendered utterly speechless or overwhelmed with a situation."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "humorous",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "unable to can"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "From can't even (“to be unable to express one's feelings about an overwhelming situation”), with the implication that one has lost the capacity of English due to shock.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "unable to can",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English humorous terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrases",
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2016 April 25, Phoebe Robinson, “The Catch Recap: A Bug's Life”, in Vulture, archived from the original on 2023-06-21:",
          "text": "I literally cannot with William. I will continue to be unable to can with this fool.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 March 25, Harriet Johnston, “Woman reveals her mother has placed a raw ONION in the corner of every room in the house in a bizarre attempt to ward off coronavirus”, in Daily Mail, London: DMG Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-10-14:",
          "text": "She said: 'This is the peak of the whatsapp mother's cult. I am unable to can lmao.'",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Rendered utterly speechless or overwhelmed with a situation."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "speechless",
          "speechless#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "overwhelmed",
          "overwhelmed#Adjective"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang, humorous) Rendered utterly speechless or overwhelmed with a situation."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "humorous",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "unable to can"
}

Download raw JSONL data for unable to can meaning in English (1.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-08 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (bb46d54 and 0c3c9f6). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.