1. Also called blitz can . Mil. a narrow, flat-sided, five-gallon (19-liter) container for fluids, as fuel.
2. Brit. a can with a capacity of 4 1 / 2 imperial gallons (5.4 U.S. gallons or 20.4 liters).
Also, jerrycan, jerrican .
[ 1940-45; appar. JERRY "German"; the British supposedly manufactured the can after a German prototype ]