canst

American

[kanst] / kænst /

verb

Archaic.

2nd person singular present tense of can.

canst British

/ kænst /

verb

archaic when used with the pronoun thou or its relative form, a form of can 1

"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

Example Sentences

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canst

When Romeo, after secretly marrying Juliet, encounters truculent Tybalt, he tells him, “I do protest I never injured thee,/But love thee better than thou canst devise,/Till thou shall know the reason of my love.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2021

On the wall above them was a Bible verse, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible.”

From Washington Times ● Jan. 1, 2016

What particle canst share Of the only blessed life, the watery?

From Slate ● Mar. 13, 2012

Judge not . . . the working of his inmost heart thou canst not see.

From Time Magazine Archive

Jesus tells his disciples that if they follow his teachings, “Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shall follow me afterward.”

From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman

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