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.

Coogler: We couldn’t have foreseen this success.

From Los Angeles Times

I was deep in my Austen/Brontës phase and I couldn’t read enough.

From Los Angeles Times

After all, this virtuoso who has flirted with the boundaries of figure skating at every turn couldn’t possibly resist a trick this flashy.

From The Wall Street Journal

But the Lakers couldn’t keep up that momentum, going down 67-58 at the half.

From Los Angeles Times

"I couldn't turn my phone off as I'm a single parent and a carer for my dad," she said.

From BBC

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