darn n.
a euph. for damn n.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | All the Year Round 31 Oct. in (1909) 104/2: When Sacramento was being destroyed by fire [...] a tavern-keeper had a space cleared among the ruins, and over a little board shanty hastily run up was this inscription: ‘Lafayette House. Drinks two bits. Who cares a darn for a fire!’. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘The Darkey’s Stratagem’ Act I: I don’t care a darn if you never come back. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 25 Mar. 2/1: Who cares a darn whether Sindram prays on the scaffold or not. | |
| (con. c.1840) Huckleberry Finn 111: I wouldn’ give a dern for a million un um. | |
| ‘Lonesome’ Lyrics of Lowly Life 189: We’ve made the richest gravy, but I jest don’t give a durn. | |
| Rosebud Co. News (Forsyth, MT) 4 June 5/3: His wife [...] doesn’t care a darn. | |
| S.F. Call 5 Aug. 14/4: You’ve yanked me off to places [...] that I didn’t give a durn for. | |
| Cowboy Songs 71: I ain’t got a nickel, / And I don’t give a dern. | |
| New York Day by Day 18 July [synd. col.] To say that she didn’t care a darn is [...] putting it mildly. | |
| ‘Down in the Mohawk Valley’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 51: And I got so light-hearted I didn’t give a darn. | |
| Absolute Beginners 170: I [...] said in a loud voice my Dad was dying and the skipper didn’t care a darn about it. | |
 | I Dream in Irish 75: Bede didn't give a darn about English Composition, but he would work hours for Miss Bach. | |
| Compterworld 18 Dec. 22: He said many users don’t give a darn about how well their business-oriented programs perform. | |
| Successful Cold-call Selling 70: I don’t give a darn about that clip except for what it does for me. | |
| When the Mines Closed 226: They didn't give a darn up there, whether you were married, thirty years old or anything like that. | |
| Wire-to-Wire Reds 91/1: He (umpire Charlie Williams) probably doesn’t like me, and I don’t give a darn. [...] He can get me the rest of my career. I don’t give a darn. |