couldst
Had the ability
Couldst is an archaic second-person singular past tense form of "can," used with "thou" in Early Modern English.
It appears in older literary and religious texts, particularly the King James Bible and Shakespeare: Thou couldst have no power at all against me.
Like other "-st" verb endings (wouldst, shouldst, didst), it survives mainly in historical quotations and deliberately archaic or poetic contexts.
Archaic second-person pronoun
Of late 1500s England
- sonnetFourteen-line metered poem
- soliloquyDramatic speech to oneself
- iambicVerse rhythm type
- pentameterFive-foot poetic line
Globe · tragedy · comedy · folio · quarto · verse · dialogue · monologue
Latent capacity for development
- capabilityPower to accomplish tasks
- abilityPower to do something
- capacityMaximum amount containable
- powerEnergy transfer rate
might · chance · opportunity · feasibility · prospect · option · conceivability · imaginable
thou
Archaic second-person pronoun
art · shalt · wilt · doth · thy · thine · thyself · ye · ere · whence
Elizabethan
Of late 1500s England
pentameter · Globe · tragedy · comedy · folio · quarto · verse · dialogue · monologue · thespian
potential
Latent capacity for development
- capabilityPower to accomplish tasks
- abilityPower to do something
- capacityMaximum amount containable
power · might · chance · opportunity · feasibility · prospect · option · conceivability · imaginable · achievable
- could havePast possibility expression
- couldn't care lessComplete absence of concern
- couldn't helpLacked power to avoid
- could not care lessTotal absence of interest
- could be worseGrudging mild acceptance
- could've swornFelt completely certain