couldn't care less

English

Alternative forms

• could not care less

Verb

couldn't care less (simple past couldn't have cared less)

1. (idiomatic) To not care at all; to have no interest or concern; to be apathetic.
   • 1987, Gary Clark, “Mary's Prayer”, performed by Danny Wilson:

     I used to be so careless / As if I couldn't care less

   • 2025 September 12, Ed Pilkington, quoting Donald Trump, “Trump declines to call for unity after Charlie Kirk killing in stunning move”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Less than 48 hours after Kirk was shot in broad daylight on the campus of Utah Valley University, Trump replied: “I tell you something that is going to get me in trouble, but I couldn’t care less.”

Usage notes

A more recent variant could care less appeared in the United States, but is deprecated by many prescriptivists and is uncommon in most other English-speaking regions.

Synonyms

• could care less (US)
• not give a tinker's damn
• not give a tinker's cuss

Translations

to lack interest

• Dutch: niet boeien
• Finnish: ei voisi vähempää kiinnostaa, vähät välittää
• French: n'en avoir rien à foutre (fr)
• Galician: tanto me ten, tanto me dá
• German: auf etwas pfeifen, nicht um etwas / jemanden scheren, einen Dreck kümmern
• Greek: δεν μου καίγεται καρφί (el) (den mou kaígetai karfí)
• Hungarian: nem törődik
• Icelandic: skeyta ekkert um
• Irish: is cuma liom sa sioc
• Italian: fregarsene (it), non me ne può fregar di meno, fottersene, infischiarsene, sbattersene
• Ladino: koza ke no me inche
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: blåse i (noe) (literally “blow in (something)”)

• Polish: mieć gdzieś (pl) impf
• Spanish: traer sin cuidado, traer al fresco, traer al pairo, pasar olímpicamente (colloquial)
• Swedish: strunta i (något), skita i (något) (literally “shit in (something)”)

Adjective

couldn't care less (comparative more couldn't care less, superlative most couldn't care less)

1. Alternative spelling of couldn't-care-less.