The will of Him who all things can.
Milton.
For what, alas, can these my single arms?
Shak.
MŠcŠnas and Agrippa, who can most with CŠsar.
Beau. & Fl.
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.
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.
Tom felt that this was a rebuff for him, and could not but understand it as a left-handed hit at his employer.
Dickens.
Ca"naan*ite (?), n. 1. A descendant of Canaan, the son of Ham, and grandson of Noah.
2. A Native or inhabitant of the land of Canaan, esp. a member of any of the tribes who inhabited Canaan at the time of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.
Ca"naan*ite, n. [From an Aramaic word signifying "zeal."] A zealot. "Simon the Canaanite." Matt. x. 4.
&fist; This was the "Simon called Zelotes" (Luke vi. 15), i.e., Simon the zealot. Kitto.
Ca"naan*i`tish (?), a. Of or pertaining to Canaan or the Canaanites.
||Ca*˝a"da (?), n. [Sp.] A small ca˝on; a narrow valley or glen; also, but less frequently, an open valley. [Local, Western U. S.]
Can"a*da (?), n. A British province in North America, giving its name to various plants and animals.
Canada balsam. See under Balsam. -- Canada goose. (Zo÷l.) See Wild goose. -- Canada jay. See Whisky Jack. -- Canada lynx. (Zo÷l.) See Lynx. -- Canada porcupine (Zo÷l.) See Porcupine, and Urson. -- Canada rice (Bot.) See under Rick. -- Canada robin (Zo÷l.), the cedar bird.
Ca*na"di*an (?), a. Of or pertaining to Canada. -- n. A native or inhabitant of Canada.
Canadian period (Geol.), A subdivision of the American Lower Silurian system embracing the calciferous, Quebec, and Chazy epochs. This period immediately follows the primordial or Cambrian period, and is by many geologists regarded as the beginning of the Silurian age, See the Diagram, under Geology.
Ca*naille" (?), n. [F. canaille (cf. It. canaglia), prop. and orig. a pack of dogs, fr. L. Canis dog.]