The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

May \May\ (m[=a]), v. [imp. Might (m[imac]t)] [AS. pres. maeg
   I am able, pret. meahte, mihte; akin to D. mogen, G.
   m["o]gen, OHG. mugan, magan, Icel. mega, Goth. magan, Russ.
   moche. [root]103. Cf. Dismay, Main strength, Might. The
   old imp. mought is obsolete, except as a provincial word.]
   An auxiliary verb qualifying the meaning of another verb, by
   expressing:
   (a) Ability, competency, or possibility; -- now oftener
       expressed by can.
       [1913 Webster]

             How may a man, said he, with idle speech,
             Be won to spoil the castle of his health!
                                                  --Spenser.
       [1913 Webster]

             For what he [the king] may do is of two kinds; what
             he may do as just, and what he may do as possible.
                                                  --Bacon.
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             For of all sad words of tongue or pen
             The saddest are these: "It might have been."
                                                  --Whittier.
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   (b) Liberty; permission; allowance.
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             Thou mayst be no longer steward.     --Luke xvi. 2.
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   (c) Contingency or liability; possibility or probability.
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             Though what he learns he speaks, and may advance
             Some general maxims, or be right by chance. --Pope.
       [1913 Webster]
   (d) Modesty, courtesy, or concession, or a desire to soften a
       question or remark.
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             How old may Phillis be, you ask.     --Prior.
       [1913 Webster]
   (e) Desire or wish, as in prayer, imprecation, benediction,
       and the like. "May you live happily." --Dryden.
       [1913 Webster]

   May be, & It may be, are used as equivalent to
      possibly, perhaps, maybe, by chance,
      peradventure. See 1st Maybe.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Can \Can\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Canned; p. pr. & vb. n.
   Canning.]
   To preserve by putting in sealed cans [U. S.] "Canned meats"
   --W. D. Howells.
   [1913 Webster]

   Canned goods, a general name for fruit, vegetables, meat,
      or fish, preserved in hermetically sealed cans.

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Can \Can\, v. t. & i.

   Note: [The transitive use is obsolete.] [imp. Could.] [OE.
         cunnen, cannen (1st sing. pres. I can), to know, know
         how, be able, AS. cunnan, 1st sing. pres. ic cann or
         can, pl. cunnon, 1st sing. imp. c[=u][eth]e (for
         cun[eth]e); p. p. c[=u][eth] (for cun[eth]); akin to
         OS. Kunnan, D. Kunnen, OHG. chunnan, G. k["o]nnen,
         Icel. kunna, Goth. Kunnan, and E. ken to know. The
         present tense I can (AS. ic cann) was originally a
         preterit, meaning I have known or Learned, and hence I
         know, know how. [root]45. See Ken, Know; cf. Con,
         Cunning, Uncouth.]
   1. To know; to understand. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            I can rimes of Robin Hood.            --Piers
                                                  Plowman.
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            I can no Latin, quod she.             --Piers
                                                  Plowman.
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            Let the priest in surplice white,
            That defunctive music can.            --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To be able to do; to have power or influence. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            The will of Him who all things can.   --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

            For what, alas, can these my single arms? --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

            M[ae]c[ae]nas and Agrippa, who can most with
            C[ae]sar.                             --Beau. & Fl.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. To be able; -- followed by an infinitive without to; as, I
      can go, but do not wish to.

   Syn: Can but, Can not but. It is an error to use the
        former of these phrases where the sens requires the
        latter. If we say, "I can but perish if I go," "But"
        means only, and denotes that this is all or the worst
        that can happen. When the apostle Peter said. "We can
        not but speak of the things which we have seen and
        heard." he referred to a moral constraint or necessety
        which rested upon him and his associates; and the
        meaning was, We cannot help speaking, We cannot refrain
        from speaking. This idea of a moral necessity or
        constraint is of frequent occurrence, and is also
        expressed in the phrase, "I can not help it." Thus we
        say. "I can not but hope," "I can not but believe," "I
        can not but think," "I can not but remark," etc., in
        cases in which it would be an error to use the phrase
        can but.
        [1913 Webster]

              Yet he could not but acknowledge to himself that
              there was something calculated to impress awe, . .
              . in the sudden appearances and vanishings . . .
              of the masque                       --De Quincey.
        [1913 Webster]

              Tom felt that this was a rebuff for him, and could
              not but understand it as a left-handed hit at his
              employer.                           --Dickens.
        [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Can \Can\ (k[a^]n),
   an obs. form of began, imp. & p. p. of Begin, sometimes
   used in old poetry.

   Note: [See Gan.]
         [1913 Webster]

               With gentle words he can faile gree. --Spenser.
         [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Can \Can\, n. [OE. & AS. canne; akin to D. Kan, G. Kanne, OHG.
   channa, Sw. Kanna, Dan. kande.]
   1. A drinking cup; a vessel for holding liquids. --[Shak. ]
      [1913 Webster]

            Fill the cup and fill can,
            Have a rouse before the morn.         --Tennyson.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. A vessel or case of tinned iron or of sheet metal, of
      various forms, but usually cylindrical; as, a can of
      tomatoes; an oil can; a milk can.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: A can may be a cylinder open at the top, as for
         receiving the sliver from a carding machine, or with a
         removable cover or stopper, as for holding tea, spices,
         milk, oysters, etc., or with handle and spout, as for
         holding oil, or hermetically sealed, in canning meats,
         fruits, etc. The name is also sometimes given to the
         small glass or earthenware jar used in canning.
         [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

can
    n 1: airtight sealed metal container for food or drink or paint
         etc. [syn: can, tin, tin can]
    2: the quantity contained in a can [syn: can, canful]
    3: a buoy with a round bottom and conical top [syn: can, can
       buoy]
    4: the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on; "he
       deserves a good kick in the butt"; "are you going to sit on
       your fanny and do nothing?" [syn: buttocks, nates,
       arse, butt, backside, bum, buns, can,
       fundament, hindquarters, hind end, keister,
       posterior, prat, rear, rear end, rump, stern,
       seat, tail, tail end, tooshie, tush, bottom,
       behind, derriere, fanny, ass]
    5: a plumbing fixture for defecation and urination [syn:
       toilet, can, commode, crapper, pot, potty,
       stool, throne]
    6: a room or building equipped with one or more toilets [syn:
       toilet, lavatory, lav, can, john, privy,
       bathroom]
    v 1: preserve in a can or tin; "tinned foods are not very tasty"
         [syn: can, tin, put up]
    2: terminate the employment of; discharge from an office or
       position; "The boss fired his secretary today"; "The company
       terminated 25% of its workers" [syn: displace, fire,
       give notice, can, dismiss, give the axe, send away,
       sack, force out, give the sack, terminate] [ant:
       employ, engage, hire]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

184 Moby Thesaurus words for "can":
   Casanova, WC, arse, ass, ax, backhouse, backside, bag, barrel,
   basement, basket, bathroom, battleship, battlewagon, be able,
   be permitted, be up to, bedpan, behind, boot, boot out, bottle,
   bounce, box, box up, break, bum, bump, burden, bust, butt,
   calaboose, can do, capital ship, capsule, carton, case, cashier,
   cask, chamber, chamber pot, chaser, cheeks, chemical closet,
   chemical toilet, chokey, clink, closet, comfort station, commode,
   convenience, cooler, coop, crapper, crate, cut it, cut the mustard,
   defrock, degrade, demote, deplume, depose, deprive, derriere,
   destroyer, disbar, discharge, disemploy, dismiss, displace,
   displume, do up, drum out, earth closet, encase, encyst, expel,
   fanny, fill, fire, freight, fundament, furlough, give the ax,
   give the gate, hack it, hamper, have permission, head, heap,
   heap up, hind end, hoosegow, jar, jerry, john, johnny,
   johnny house, jordan, jug, keister, kick, kick out, kick upstairs,
   lade, lady-killer, latrine, lavatory, lay off, let go, let out,
   load, lockup, loo, make it, make redundant, make the grade, masher,
   mass, may, necessary, outhouse, pack, pack away, package, parcel,
   pen, pension off, philander, philanderer, pile, piss pot, pocket,
   pokey, possess authority, pot, potty, potty-chair, powder room,
   prat, prison, privy, put up, quod, read out of, release, remove,
   replace, rest room, retire, rusty-dusty, sack, separate forcibly,
   ship, slammer, stack, stern, stir, stool, store, stow, strip,
   superannuate, surplus, suspend, tail, take charge, tank, terminate,
   throne, thunder mug, tin, toilet, toilet room, tuchis, turn off,
   turn out, tush, tushy, unfrock, urinal, washroom, water closet,
   womanizer



V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (February 2016):

CAN
       Complete Area Networks (SNI)


V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (February 2016):

CAN
       Controller Area Network [bus] (CAN)


The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

Cancel
CAN

    (CAN, Control-X) ASCII character 24.

   (1996-06-28)