couldn't

American

[kood-nt] / ˈkʊd nt /

contraction of could not.

couldn't British

/ ˈkʊdənt /

contraction

could not

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

couldn't Idioms

More idioms and phrases containing couldn't

can't
hurt a flea, couldn't

Usage

See care, contraction.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

couldn't

But the AI trade couldn’t avoid the spillover from debt markets for long.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 27, 2026

"I'm actually halfway through another book that I couldn't pay attention to because I've been so busy thinking about the characters from ACOTAR," Amy jokes.

From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2026

A segment claimed they couldn’t understand Lamar’s rapping.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026

“A lot of people said, ‘Man you couldn’t be more wrong.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026

I couldn’t ask him not to go though, since it was me that encouraged him to apply there, as well as Sunridge.

From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023