couldst

American  

[koodst, kootst] / kʊdst, kʊtst /

Also couldest

verb

Archaic.

1. 2nd person singular simple past tense of can.

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couldst British  

/ kʊdst /

verb

1. archaic used with the pronoun thou or its relative form, the form of could

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Example Sentences

If thou couldst ever put thy pride away,     Belike my prejudice would fall aside.

From Slate • May 28, 2014

Douay's Dalila, for example, asked Samson in stodgy Elizabethan English "Wherewith if thou wert bound thou couldst not break loose?"

From Time Magazine Archive

Heartily do I wish thou couldst see this household—its freaks and pranks and glories.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson

I cried, 'couldst thou have foreseen how bitter would be my "chastisement," couldst thou have known, that the "fire" would consume all, would not thy love have framed a far different prayer?

From Discipline by Brunton, Mary

In such a ministry thou couldst never be alone, since hope must dwell with thee.

From Life Without and Life Within or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and poems. by Fuller, Margaret