can opener
noun
a manual device or small electric appliance for opening cans.
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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:
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
If it hurts to use a traditional can opener, you might prefer a mechanical one that operates with the push of a button.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 22, 2023
All you need is a can opener, a blender or food processor — and some popsicle molds, of course.
From Salon ● Jul. 1, 2023
“The garlic was all rotten and moldy,” reads the top review for this can opener.
From Slate ● Dec. 16, 2021
“Because it’s worthless. Look,” he said, and, lifting the engine cover with one paw, he extended a claw on the other hand and ripped right through it like a can opener.
From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
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
Still, at least the thing exists — in a weird quirk of history, the can-opener wasn’t invented until 1870, a lengthy 48 years after the can itself.
From Time ● Jun. 15, 2016
But inexplicably - well, maybe not, he’s a young man - Alli tries to play a can-opener of a pass down the middle for Kane.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 16, 2016
It was a mighty department store and we were informed that we need not pass its doors again until we had selected everything we needed from a can-opener to a grand piano.
From The Van Dwellers A Strenuous Quest for a Home by Albert Bigelow Paine
Definitions 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.
