adjective
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preserved and stored in airtight cans or tins
canned meat
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informal prepared or recorded in advance; artificial; not spontaneous
canned music
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a slang word for drunk
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of canned
Explanation
Anything canned is stored in a jar or can. It’s usually food, but prerecorded music is also canned. And, if you get fired from a job, you’ve been canned. Don’t cry, though, it’s better than being stuck in a jar. When someone talks about "canned goods," they mean all the food you can buy that comes in a can, like canned green beans and canned pineapple. Home-preserved food is also canned, even if it's in a glass jar. This adjective takes on a derogatory slant when it describes music that's recorded rather than played live, or an answer that sounds prepared rather than real.
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.
Other beer companies, including Molson Coors, have seen strong growth in canned cocktails and other non-beer, ready-to-drink beverages.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
Processing tomatoes — those used in products such as canned diced tomatoes and ketchup — are also fetching lower prices than they did a few years ago.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026
Add some canned beans if you’ve got them.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026
He’s a partial owner of the canned yerba mate brand Mateina, but he “loves it without bias.”
From Slate ● Sep. 18, 2026
But I have enough canned and dried stuff to live on; and if he had seen the garden, all in rows and weeded, he would have known someone was here.
From "Z for Zachariah" by Robert C. O’Brien
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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.
