can but hope
(UK, dated) To be unable to do anything (about something) other than hope ; especially with long odds.
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(UK, dated) To be unable to do anything (about something) other than hope ; especially with long odds.
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🇬🇧About British & Irish slang slang
UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
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Semantically related
- can't70%
(slang, euphemistic) To be unwilling to; to not have the desire of; to don’t want to.
- behope69%
(UK, _, dialectal) To hope.
- can't66%
To be forbidden to; to be not permitted to.
- can is can66%
While something is possible or makes sense in theory, it may not be as straightforward or sensible as initially thought, or may prove to be less successful in practice.
- overhope64%
(UK, _, dialectal) Hopefulness; sanguineness.