couldn't

Meanings

1. 1
   contraction

   a contraction of could not, used to express inability, impossibility, or a negative past possibility

   We couldn't see the shore through the fog.

A contraction of could + not. The ending -n't continues a reduced form of not, and the apostrophe marks the omitted vowel; the written l in could is silent by historical analogy with should and would.

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