care a jackstraw

• give a jackstraw

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

1. (idiomatic, dated, usually in a negative use) To care (at all).

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:care

   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Church-Yard, London: Richard Bentley, 1866, Chapter 58, p. 250,

     […] Dangerfield was content to leave the question in abeyance, and did not seem to care a jackstraw what the townspeople said or thought […]

   • 1865, Anne I. Robertson, Yaxley and its Neighbourhood, London: T. Cautley Newby, Volume 1, Chapter 10, p. 122,

     “ […] who’d care for the reputation of a schoolmaster? Do you think I’d care a jackstraw about Benson’s character if he was to die to-morrow?”