care / ke(ə)r/ • n. 1. the provision of what is necessary for the health, welfare, maintenance, and protection of someone or something: the care of the elderly. 2. serious attention or consideration applied to doing something correctly or to avoid damage or risk: he planned his departure with great care. ∎  an object of concern or attention: the cares of family life. ∎  a feeling of or occasion for anxiety: without a care in the world.• v. [intr.] 1. feel concern or interest; attach importance to something: they don't care about human life| [tr.] I don't care what she says. ∎  feel affection or liking: you care very deeply for him. ∎  (care for something/care to do something) like or be willing to do or have something: would you care for some tea? 2. (care for) look after and provide for the needs of: he has numerous animals to care for.PHRASES: care of at the address of: write to me care of Anne.I (or he, she, etc.) couldn't (or inf. also could) care less inf. used to express complete indifference: he couldn't care less about football.for all you care (or he, she, etc., cares) inf. used to indicate that someone feels no interest or concern: I could drown for all you care.take care1. [often in imper.] be cautious; keep oneself safe. ∎  said to someone on leaving them: take care, see you soon. 2. make sure of doing something: he would take care to provide himself with an escape clause.take care of1. keep (someone or something) safe and provided for. 2. deal with (something).

CARE

Watchful attention; custody; diligence; concern; caution; as opposed tonegligenceor carelessness.

In the law of negligence, the standard of reasonable conduct determines the amount of care to be exercised in a situation. The care taken must be proportional to the apparent risk. As danger increases, commensurate caution must be observed.

Slight care is the care persons of ordinary prudence generally exercise in regard to their personal affairs of minimal importance.

Reasonable care, also known as ordinary care, is the degree of care, diligence, or precaution that may fairly, ordinarily, and properly be expected or required in consideration of the nature of the action, the subject matter, and the surrounding circumstances.

Great care is the degree of care that persons of ordinary prudence usually exercise with respect to their personal affairs of great importance.

Another type of care is that which a fiduciary—a person having a duty, created by his or her undertaking, to act primarily for another's benefit—exercises in regard to valuable possessions entrusted to him or her by another.

care care killed the cat proverbial expression, late 16th century, which may be compared with curiosity killed the cat; the meaning of care has shifted somewhat from ‘worry, grief’ to ‘care, caution’.
Care Sunday the fifth Sunday in Lent; formerly also, the Sunday preceding Good Friday; Care here means ‘sorrow, trouble, grief’.
don't care was made to care traditional rebuke to someone who asserts their lack of concern; first words of a children's rhyme (‘Don't care was made to care, don't care was hung’) recorded from the mid 20th century.

care †grief; burdened state of mind; serious attention OE.; charge, oversight XIV; object of concern XVI. OE. caru = OS., OHG., Goth. kara, ON. kǫr (gen. karar) :- Gmc. *karō.
So care vb. OE. carian = OS. karōn, OHG. charōn, -ēn, Goth. karōn :- Gmc. *karōjan, -æjan; in later uses reformed on the sb. Hence careful OE. carful; see -FUL 1. See CHARY.

CARE

I. History of the Notion of Care

II. Historical Dimensions of an Ethic of Care in Healthcare

III. Contemporary Ethics of Care