can opener
noun
a manual device or small electric appliance for opening cans.
Jump To:
can opener
Americannoun
-
can openers
plural
can-opener
British
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of can opener
First recorded in 1865–70
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:
Corrections & Amplifications An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Ally Walsh doesn’t have a can opener.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
One character, for reasons you’ll observe, wordlessly switches from soup cans that require them to use a can opener to ones with a pull tab.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2025
All you need is a can opener, a blender or food processor — and some popsicle molds, of course.
From Salon ● Jul. 1, 2023
When I used to volunteer at food banks, when someone came in who was unhoused, we would pick out foods that were nonperishable, didn’t have to be cooked, and didn’t require a can opener.
From Seattle Times ● May 9, 2022
And a can opener; it would be just her luck to forget the can opener.
From "Homecoming" by Cynthia Voigt
The can-opener now is access to locked doors of knowledge and services.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2025
It does not, sadly, demolish the can-opener theory.
From Slate ● Dec. 7, 2018
Thankfully, our own can of baked beans has one of those new-fangled rings pulls on the top, and doesn’t require the dreaded can-opener to be clumsily clamped over the metal lip.
From Time ● Jun. 15, 2016
As you approach Vitamix’s headquarters, the first thing you see is a log cabin that housed the company after it was founded in 1921 by a traveling can-opener salesman named William Grover “Papa” Barnard.
From BusinessWeek ● Dec. 19, 2013
If you've made up your mind not to talk a man couldn't get anything out of you with a can-opener.
From The Million Dollar Mystery Novelized from the Scenario of F. Lonergan by Harold MacGrath
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
