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can't but. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
can't but, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
can't but in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Verb
can't but (third-person singular simple present can't but, no present participle, simple past couldn't but, no past participle)
- Alternative form of cannot but.
- 18th c, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope (later lines), Imitation of Horace, 1852, Charles Knight (collator), Half-hours with the Best Authors, Volume 4, page 188,
- But here a grievance seems to lie, / All this is mine but till I die; / I can't but think 'twould sound more clever, / To me and to my heirs forever.
1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, “The Knights of the Temple”, in The History of Pendennis. , volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1849, →OCLC, page 290:[…] the man of letters can't but love the place which has been inhabited by so many of his brethren, […]
2004, David W. Scott, The Disillusioned: A Story of Our Times, Fraser Books, →ISBN, page 204:I'd weave through the throng — scanning for empties to return while flirting, sniffing out kids smoking grass and sharing smokes with Ivor and Carl on the door. With a name like Carl you can imagine a six-foot tall and wide bouncer, but Ivor...I couldn't but help to think of the name as belonging to a skinny Welshman getting sand kicked into his face. His name didn't do him justice — this guy was almost as big as Carl and probably faster with his fists.