wa'n't

See also: want, Want, Wänt, and wan't

English

Alternative forms

• wan't

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɒnt/, (unstressed) /wənt/

Contraction

wa'n't

1. (colloquial, dated) Pronunciation spelling of wasn't. Compare wadn't.
   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter III, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.

   • 1903, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm:

     "You're soft, Jane," said Miranda once; "you allers was soft, and you allers will be. If 't wa'n't for me keeping you stiffened up, I b'lieve you 'd leak out o' the house into the dooryard."

Anagrams

• tawn