Word.ws English Dictionary

kick at the can

kick at the can noun: an attempt or an opportunity.

Noun

kick at the can (plural kicks at the can)

  1. (Canada, US, idiomatic, slang) An attempt or an opportunity.
    • "We're now in a situation where you get just one kick at the can," Mr. Elderfield said.2005 June 17, Carol Vogel, “The Modern Buys 'Rebus'”, in New York Times, retrieved 13 Feb 2014
    • He figured that Canadian political leaders got only two kicks at the can, and he'd now had both of his.2011, Paul Litt, Elusive Destiny: The Political Vocation of John Napier Turner, →ISBN, page 389
    Synonyms:
    kick at the cat

Verb

kick at the can (third-person singular simple present kicks at the can, present participle kicking at the can, simple past and past participle kicked at the can)

  1. (Canada, US, idiomatic, slang) To make an attempt; to try.

kick at the can meaning in Bengali

kick at the can in Bengali

একটি চেষ্টা, একটি সুযোগ, একটি চেষ্টা করা, চেষ্টা করা

Synonyms of kick at the can

Forms of kick at the can

Noun
pluralkicks at the can
Verb
third-person singular presentkicks at the can
present participlekicking at the can
past participlekicked at the can
pastkicked at the can

Questions about kick at the can

What does kick at the can mean?
Kick at the can means an attempt or an opportunity.
What is kick at the can in Bengali?
Kick at the can in Bengali is একটি চেষ্টা, একটি সুযোগ, একটি চেষ্টা করা. See Kick at the can meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is kick at the can?
Kick at the can can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of kick at the can?
The plural of kick at the can is kicks at the can.

Words near kick at the can in the dictionary

  1. kick arounds
  2. kick arse
  3. kick ass
  4. kick ass and take names
  5. kick at an open door
  6. kick at the can
  7. kick at the cat
  8. kick back
  9. kick backs
  10. kick ball
  11. kick balls

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kick at the can (page history and authors); kick at the can (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-kick at the can.ogg.

Cite this entry: “kick at the can.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kick_at_the_can. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.