cared

verbtend to

verbregard highly

Word Origin & History

Old English carian, cearian "be anxious, grieve; to feel concern or interest," from Proto-Germanic *karojanan (cf. Old High German charon "to lament," Old Saxon karon "to care, to sorrow"), from the same source as care (n.). OED emphasizes that it is in "no way related to L. cura." Related: Cared; caring.

To not care as a negative dismissal is attested from mid-13c. Phrase couldn't care less is from 1946; could care less in the same sense (with an understood negative) is from 1966. Care also figures in many "similies of indifference" in the form don't care a _____, with the blank filled by fig, pin, button, cent, straw, rush, point, farthing, snap, etc., etc.

Positive senses, e.g. "have an inclination" (1550s); "have fondness for" (1520s) seem to have developed later as mirrors to the earlier negative ones.

Example Sentences for cared

To have married a girl who cared only for his money; that would have been dire enough.

He would not have cared half so much for any insult to himself.

He cared as little for the money as Uncle Peter did, large sum though it was.

This satisfied him, for he cared nothing for the attachment of those under his command.

She cared little for poverty or riches, as long as she had regained her chief treasures.

Now, Perronel might do what she would with him—he cared not.

They had cared for him in his cradle; he followed them to their graves.

The misfortune was that this was the only thing they cared to possess.

Otherwise, he would not have cared to go on destroying life for no useful end.

She hardly looked up or spoke; but for me, I cared for nothing since she was with me.

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adjective. eased in mind

cared

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