Word.ws English Dictionary

give a shite

give a shite verb: to care; mind; consider important.

Verb

give a shite (third-person singular simple present gives a shite, present participle giving a shite, simple past gave a shite, past participle given a shite)

  1. (Ireland, UK, slang, vulgar, very uncommon) To care; mind; consider important.
    • I'd carry a sandwichboard only the girl in the office told me they're full up for the next three weeks, man. God, you've to book ahead, man, you'd think it was for the Carl Rosa. I don't give a shite anyway so long as I get a job, even as a crossing sweeper.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 16: Eumaeus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part III [Nostos], page 574

Forms of give a shite

third-person singular presentgives a shite
present participlegiving a shite
pastgave a shite
past participlegiven a shite

Questions about give a shite

What does give a shite mean?
Give a shite means to care; mind; consider important.
What part of speech is give a shite?
Give a shite is a verb.
What is the past tense of give a shite?
The past tense of give a shite is gave a shite.

Words near give a shite in the dictionary

  1. give a rat's arse
  2. give a rat's ass
  3. give a rats
  4. give a rip
  5. give a shit
  6. give a shite
  7. give a sneck posset
  8. give a stuff
  9. give a tin shit
  10. give a tinker's cuss
  11. give a tinker's damn

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: give a shite (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-give a shite.ogg.

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