Green’s Dictionary of Slang

not care a straw v.

to not care at all.

1533		J. Heywood Pardoner and Friar Bi: I care nat for the an olde straw [...] Therefore preche hardely thy belly full / But I neuer the les wyll declare the popes bull.
1533		J. Heywood A Merry Play in Farmer Dramatic Writings (1905) 76: I will not give a straw, I tell you plain, / If that the pie wax could again.
1540		D. Lyndsay Satyre of Thrie Estaits II iv: As for this King, I cure him nocht twa strais.
1568		Hist. of Jacob and Esau V vi: I set not a strawe by you nor a pinne.
1584		Three Ladies of London II: Mary, for Conscience tut, I care not two strawes.
1625		Massinger New Way to Pay Old Debts III i: This rebellious Cooke cares not a straw.
a.1661		‘A Psalm of Mercy’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) II 195: We care not a Straw / For Reason or Law.
1678		Poor Robin True Character of a Scold 4: She not cares a straw for Constable or Cucking-stool.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 527: This pair of bloods [...] Not care’d a straw what asius’ crew / Of roaring, noisy whelps could do.
1794		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘A Rowland for an Oliver’ Works (1794) II 409: I do not care three straws for all thy rhymes.
1821–6		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 157: A body of men already too much engrossed [...] to care a single straw about either meat or drink.
1828		Lytton Pelham I 17: He cared not a straw that he was a man of fortune, of family, of consequence; he must be a man of ton, or he was [...] no man.
1837		C. Dance Advice Gratis Scene i: I don’t care a straw about time.
1840		R. Barham ‘The Merchant of Venice’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 50: Like most of these sage ‘Johnny Raws’ / Who care not three straws / About Lawyers or Laws.
1841		‘Petticoat Government’ Dublin Comic Songster 167: For their wives they don’t care a straw.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 1 Apr. 3/4: Your amiable pal and countryman is out on the 1st of June and will not care three straws for either of you.
1850		F.E. Smedley Frank Fairlegh (1878) 417: I don’t care two straws about it.
1857		T. Hughes Tom Brown’s School-Days (1896) 198: Reckoning that East and Brown [...] wouldn’t care three straws for any licking Jones might give them.
1860		E. Eden Semi-Attached Couple (1979) 44: He does not care two straws for Helen.
1861		T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxford (1880) 26: Drysdale [...] didn’t care three straws about knowing St. Cloud.
1876		M.E. Braddon Dead Men’s Shoes II 252: I don’t care a straw for a horse when all the spirit has been taken out of him.
1884		All Sloper’s Half Holiday 8 May 6/1: The Capting said he did not care two straws for him.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 97: George worships the ground she treads on, and she can’t make herself care two straws about him.
1890		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer I 187: He really did not care two straws what became of them.
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 1 Dec. 139: He didn’t care a straw when the fellows called him ‘Horseshoe’.
1909		W.M. Raine Brand Blotters (1912) 219: I don’t care a jackstraw whether you do or not.
1914		C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 282: They don’t care a straw about your being a singer.
1919		J. Buchan Mr Standfast (1930) 642: I don’t care two straws for music from an instrument – unless it be the pipes or a regimental band – but I dearly love the human voice.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 691: And then the usual kissing my bottom was to hide it not that I care two straws who he does it with.
1926		Boys’ Realm 16 Jan. 267: Not that he cared a straw about the boy.
1948		P. Kavanagh Tarry Flynn (1965) 13: Not that I care a straw for that whipster of Reilley’s.
1961		‘Frank Richards’ Billy Bunter at Butlins 1: Billy Bunter did not care a straw.
1965		(con. 1930s) R. Wright Lawd Today 38: Not that he cared two straws about what Lil would say.