care

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kɛə/
• (General American) enPR: kâr, IPA^(key): /kɛɚ/, [kʰe(ə̯)ɹ], [kʰɛ(ə̯)ɹ]

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

  • (dialectal) enPR: kêr IPA^(key): /kɪə(ɹ)/^[1]
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /keː/
• (New Zealand, without the cheer–chair merger) IPA^(key): /keə/
• (New Zealand, cheer–chair merger) IPA^(key): /kiə/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /keɹ/
• (Lancashire, fair–fur merger) IPA^(key): /kɜː(ɹ)/
• Homophones: Keir (cheer–chair merger), cur (fair–fur merger)
• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)

From Middle English care, from Old English caru, ċearu (“care, concern, anxiety, sorrow, grief, trouble”), from Proto-West Germanic *karu, from Proto-Germanic *karō (“care, sorrow, cry”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵeh₂r- (“shout, call”). Cognate with Old Saxon cara, kara (“concern, action”), Middle High German kar (“sorrow, lamentation”), Icelandic kör (“sickbed”), Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐍂𐌰 (kara, “concern, care”). Related also to Dutch karig (“scanty”), German karg (“sparse, meagre, barren”), Latin garriō, Ancient Greek γῆρυς (gêrus). See also chary.

care (countable and uncountable, plural cares)

1. Close attention; concern; responsibility.

   Care should be taken when holding babies.

   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     I thank thee for thy care and honest pains.

   • 1925, Walter Anthony and Tom Reed (titles), Rupert Julian (director), The Phantom of the Opera, silent movie:

     ‘Have a care, Buquet—ghosts like not to be seen or talked about!’

2. (countable, uncountable) Worry.

   I don’t have a care in the world.

   • 1956, Irving Berlin, “Cheek to Cheek”:

     Yes, heaven, I’m in heaven / And the cares that hung around me through the week / Seem to vanish like a gambler’s lucky streak

3. (uncountable) Maintenance, upkeep.

   dental care

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Corinthians 11:28:

     Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.

4. (uncountable) The treatment of those in need (especially as a profession).
   • 2013 June 21, Karen McVeigh, “US rules human genes can't be patented”, in The Guardian Weekly‎^[1], volume 189, number 2, page 10:

     The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation.

5. (uncountable, UK) The state of being cared for by others.

   in care

6. The object of watchful attention or anxiety.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 17:

     Right sorrowfully mourning her bereaved cares.

7. (obsolete) Grief, sorrow. [13th–19th c.]
   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

     More health and happiness betide my liege / Than can my care-tuned tongue deliver him!

   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

     Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care.

   • 1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “Julnar the Sea-Born and Her Son King Badr Basim of Persia”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume VII, [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC, page 265:

     One day, among the days, he bethought him of this and fell lamenting for that the most part of his existence was past and he had not been vouchsafed a son, to inherit the kingdom after him, even as he had inherited it from his fathers and forebears; by reason whereof there betided him sore cark and care and chagrin exceeding.

• carcake
• chary

From Middle English caren, carien, from Old English carian (“to sorrow, grieve, be troubled, be anxious, to care for, heed”), from Proto-West Germanic *karōn (“to care”), from Proto-Germanic *karōną (“to care”).

Cognate with Old Saxon karōn (“to lament”), Middle High German karen, karn (“to complain, lament, grieve, mourn”), archaic German karen (“to groan, gasp”), Alemannic German karen, kären (“to groan, gasp”), Swedish kära (“to fall in love”), Icelandic kæra (“to care, like”), Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐍂𐍉𐌽 (karōn, “to be concerned”).

care (third-person singular simple present cares, present participle caring, simple past and past participle cared)

2. (transitive, intransitive) To be concerned (about), to have an interest (in); to feel concern (about).

   She doesn’t care what you think.

   I don’t care, I’m still going.

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     […] What cares these roarers [i.e. thunder] for the name of king? […]

   • 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:

     And no use for anyone to tell Charles that this was because the Family was in mourning for Mr Granville Darracott […]: Charles might only have been second footman at Darracott Place for a couple of months when that disaster occurred, but no one could gammon him into thinking that my lord cared a spangle for his heir.

   • 2012 May 27, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club:

     This newfound infatuation renders Bart uncharacteristically vulnerable. He suddenly has something to care about beyond causing trouble and makes a dramatic transformation from hell-raiser to gentleman about town.

   • 2019, Aries, “Amy's Grave”, in Welcome Home‎^[2]:

     No longer mind if I go / You pray enough, I might fall / Down, down, down, down, down / Why should I care what happens to me? / Why should I care what happens to me?

3. (intransitive, polite, formal, chiefly in the negative) To want, to desire; to like; to be inclined towards or interested in.

   Would you care for another slice of cake?

   Would you care to dance?

   I don’t care to hear your opinion.

4. (intransitive, informal, by extension) To be affected by, to treat as relevant for a subsequent course of action.
   • 2013, Addy Osmani, Developing Backbone.js Applications, page 175:

     An event aggregator facilitates a fire-and-forget model of communication. The object triggering the event doesn’t care if there are any subscribers. It just fires the event and moves on.

5. (intransitive) (with for) To look after or look out for.

   Young children can learn to care for a pet.

   He cared for his mother while she was sick.

6. (intransitive, Appalachia) To mind; to object.
   • 2006, Grace Toney Edwards, JoAnn Aust Asbury, Ricky L. Cox, A Handbook to Appalachia: An Introduction to the Region, Univ. of Tennessee Press, →ISBN, page 108:

     After introducing herself, the therapist then asked the patient if it would be all right to do the exercises which the doctor had ordered for her. The patient would response, "Well, I don't care to." For several days, the therapist immediately left the room and officially recorded that the patient had "refused" therapy. […] It was not until months later that this therapist […] discovered that she should have been interpreting "I don't care to" as "I don't mind" doing those exercises now.

• The sense “to want” is most commonly found as an interrogative or negative sentence, and may take a for clause (would you care for some tea?) or (as a catenative verb) takes a to infinitive (would you care to go with me?). See Appendix:English catenative verbs.
• In the sense “to be concerned about”, care may idiomatically take a figurative amount as a direct object, as in the fixed phrase care a fig (equivalent to give a fig), or care one whit.

• acer, race-, Cera, Race, caer, e-car, CERA, Acre, acre, Crea, race

• IPA^(key): /kaʁ/
• Homophones: car, carent, cares, carre, carrent, carre, quarre, quarres, quarrent, quart

care

1. inflection of carer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• acre, âcre, créa, race

• IPA^(key): /ˈka.re/
• Rhymes: -are
• Hyphenation: cà‧re

care f pl

1. feminine plural of caro

• Arce, acre, c'era, cera, crea, reca

• carē:
  • (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈka.reː]
  • (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkaː.re]
• cāre:
  • (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkaː.rɛ]
  • (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkaː.re]

carē

1. second-person singular present active imperative of careō

cāre

1. vocative masculine singular of cārus

cārē (comparative cārius, superlative cārissimē)

1. at a high price

• “care”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “care”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “care”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

From Old English caru (“care, concern, anxiety, sorrow, grief, trouble”), from Proto-West Germanic *karu, from Proto-Germanic *karō. See Modern English care for more.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkaːr(ə)/

care (plural cares)

1. grief; sorrow [from 13th c.]
   • 1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book V, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC:

     Than Feraunte his cosyn had grete care and cryed full lowde […].

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• English: care
• Scots: care
• Yola: caure, caare, caar

• “cāre, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɑ.re/

care

1. accusative/genitive/dative singular of caru

care

1. inflection of cara (“walker; frequenting”):
   1. locative singular
   2. accusative plural

care

1. first-person singular present/imperative middle of carati (“to walk”)
2. optative active singular of carati (“to walk”)

• каре (care) — post-1930s Cyrillic spelling

Inherited from Latin quālis, quālem. Compare Italian quale, Provençal car, Ligurian quar and Aromanian cari, cai, care.

• IPA^(key): /ˈka.re/
• Rhymes: -are
• Hyphenation: ca‧re

care

1. which

   Care din aceste jocuri este nou?

   Which of these games is new?

care

1. which, that, who

   El este un om care a văzut foarte multe lucruri.

   He is a man who has seen very many things.

care n pl

1. plural of car (“cart”)

care

1. third-person singular/plural present subjunctive of căra

• “care”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026

care f

1. feminine plural of caro