couldn't
Americancontraction
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.
The civil aviation authority couldn’t be reached for comment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026
He announced the decision on Friday after an agreement couldn't be reached between the Portadown District Lodge and the Garvaghy Road residents.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
"It didn't make any sense. We couldn't explain what this was."
From Science Daily ● Oct. 10, 2026
Obviously, and he had some darkness in him; he came back from World War II really scarred, couldn’t really deal with it . . . but he was also a very outgoing guy.
From Salon ● Oct. 10, 2026
Loud was part of her, grating against a wrongness she perceived but couldn’t identify, something in her family that had no name or face but demanded to make a sound through her.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
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.
