An expression of dismissiveness or disappointment concerning a statement, question, explanation, course of action, or occurrence involving hypothetical possibilities, uncertain facts, or missed opportunities.New York Times, May 15, 1994): "The order of words in this delicious morsel of dialect varies with the user. . . . In this rhyming compound, a triple elision does the hat trick: although each elision expresses something different, when taken together, the trio conveys a unified meaning. Shoulda, short for should have (and not should of, which lexies call a variant but I call a mistake), carries a sense of correctness or obligation; coulda implies a possibility, and woulda denotes conditional certainty, an oxymoron: the stated intent to have taken an action if only something had not intervened. . . . Taken together, the term means 'Spare me the useless excuses.'" (This stems from expressing that someone could have, would have and/or should have done something)

(Australia) Synonym of couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery

Alternative form of could have sworn

(Yorkshire, idiomatic) Bow-legged.

Alternative form of you could have fooled me

Misspelling of I couldn't have said it better myself.

(US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, idiomatic) Two entities that have virtually nothing in common.

simple past tense of can't help

plural of couldron

Obsolete form of cauldron.