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might could

verb

Etymology

In many Germanic languages and dialects modals can be stacked to combine their meanings; compare Scots micht cud.

  1. derived from micht cud

Definitions

  1. might be able to (used to soften "could" or make it even more conditional)

    • "Grammaw, Mr. Hammer said today you know things you won't talk about. That if he knew more about what's goin' on he might could go to the police, or to a lawyer, and maybe have Dunreith Smith arrested again."
    • "He might could go there anyway and stay on academic probation for a year and then start running, but they won't accept him if he don't have a high school diploma."

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for might could. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA