care a button

Verb

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

1. (dated, idiomatic) To care (at all).
   • […] the filthy and foule desire of gaine preuailed with one of the garrison, a most wretched and desperate villaine of all men liuing to be abhorred: who being corrupted by the large and perilous offers of Ottoman, did not care a button for the safetie of his citizens, of his countrey, nor of his...1596, Marin Barleti, translated by Zachary Jones, The Historie of George Castriot, surnamed Scanderbeg, King of Albanie, London: William Ponsonby, Book 5, p. 180
   • If you are treated ill and put on,
     ’Tis natural to make a Fuss;
     To see it and not care a Button,
     Is just as natural for us.1763, John Hall-Stevenson, A Pastoral Cordial, London: J. Hinxman, page 19

   Synonyms:

   becare, bother, care, concern oneself, heed, mind, reck, trouble oneself, worry