cannotn.

1626 J. Fisher Answer Nine Points Controv. (new ed.) ii. 392 Marke the cannot of the Protestant Impeccability.

a1640 W. Fenner Wilfull Impenitency (1648) 117 God is not angry with his people for cannots, but onely for their wil-nots.

1644 P. Hunton Vindic. Treat. Monarchy vi. 51 Sure, by cannot, he understands fallaciously, as he useth to doe, a morall cannot.

1723 J. Reynolds Inq. State & Œcon. Angelical Worlds xxxiv. 228 These Cannots are very ambiguous, and..affect sometimes the Physical Faculties, and sometimes the Moral Powers.

1760 S. Foote Minor Introd. 7 Psha, I don't know what you mean by your is nots, and cannots—damn'd abstruse jargon.

1842 Cultivator (Albany, N.Y.) Oct. 156/2 There will be a cannot of another nature to arrest him; and that will be when his foolish purchases have so..reduced his credit, that no one will trust him.

1859 Ladies' Repository Mar. 167/1 The child is well acquainted with his mother's ‘can nots’ and ‘must nots,’ so he waits a little till her attention is diverted and then renews his violation of her commands.

1875 20th Ann. Rep. Maine Board Agric. 1874 169 Strip our agriculture of its doubtings, false notions, and can nots.

1978 B. A. O. Williams in G. S. Stent Morality as Biol. Phenomenon (1980) 282 If the sociobiologists really deliver a ‘cannot’, something no human being can do, then there is no need for a moral prohibition against it.

2003 C. Perry in J. Wiener et al. Supervising & being Supervised iv. xi. 197 Most of us approach our work with all sorts of assumptions and preconceptions, consisting of shoulds and oughts and do nots and can nots and must nots.