canst

[ kanst ]

verb

, Archaic.

1. 2nd person singular present tense of can ¹.

canst

/ kænst /

verb

1. archaic.
   when used with the pronoun thou or its relative form, a form of can 1

Example Sentences

When Romeo, after secretly marrying Juliet, encounters truculent Tybalt, he tells him, “I do protest I never injured thee,/But love thee better than thou canst devise,/Till thou shall know the reason of my love.”

From Los Angeles Times

“Canst thou climb the ladder or wilt go pickaback? Tis a great height, but there are resting places.”

From Literature

“Thou canst but try,” said John.

From Literature

Some of the lines most applicable today: “Give thy thoughts no tongue, nor any unproportion’d thought his act. . . . Give every man thy ear but few thy voice. Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar. . . . This above all: to thine own self be true. . . . And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

From Washington Post

As the cardinal says, “Dost thou imagine, thou canst slide on blood,/And not be tainted?”

From New York Times