Could

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language

·Impf of Can.

II. Could ·Impf Was, should be, or would be, able, capable, or susceptible. Used as an auxiliary, in the past tense or in the conditional present.

Related Words

used to could
A vulgarism used in the Southern States for could formerly; as, 'I cannot do it now, but I used to c...

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.
looking as if one could not help it
Looking like a simpleton, or as if one could not say boh! to a goose. ...

Dictionary of The Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose