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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.

He then went to get his father, but couldn’t find him.

From The Wall Street Journal

Given the gut-wrenching nature of their penalty shootout defeat against Bosnia, it was understandable that many of them couldn't stomach this fixture.

From BBC

George Hirst worked himself to a standstill, created a few half-chances for himself, but couldn't execute.

From BBC

Doing this made it easy to identify which expenses we could cut and the ones we couldn’t touch.

From MarketWatch

The Norin deal fell apart last year because it couldn’t secure the approvals it needed from the Congolese.

From The Wall Street Journal

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