Word.ws English Dictionary

could have cared less

could have cared less is the simple past of could care less.

Meaning of could care less

Verb

could care less (past perfect could have cared less)

  1. (US, nonstandard, proscribed) 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.1967, American Cooperation, Washington, D.C.: American Institute of Cooperation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 235
    Synonyms:
    couldn't care less, not give a tinker's cuss, not give a tinker's damn

Questions about could have cared less

What is could have cared less the simple past of?
Could have cared less is the simple past of could care less.

Words near could have cared less in the dictionary

  1. could eat the arse out of a low flying duck
  2. could eat the crotch out of a low flying duck
  3. could eat the crutch from a low flying duck
  4. could fit on the back of a postage stamp
  5. could go all day
  6. could have cared less
  7. could have done with
  8. could have fooled me
  9. could have sworn
  10. could have, would have, should have
  11. could hear a pin drop

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: could have cared less (page history and authors); could care less (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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