could care less
verb/kəd kɛə ˈlɛs/UK/kəd kɛ(ə)ɹ ˈlɛs/US
Etymology
An alteration of couldn’t care less (which is first attested slightly earlier), either: * by deliberate irony, or * by hyponegation, perhaps influenced by forms such as “as if I could care less”, “no one could care less”, and “to know little (or nothing) and care less”.
Definitions
To not care at all
To not care at all; to have no concern or interest; to be apathetic.
- Farmers knew that dead fish made plants go better. They could care less about why that happened. Scientists could not sleep until they found out why.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for could care less. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA