not give a fuck, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

not give a fuck v.

also ...a cockeyed fuck, ...a fat fuck, ...a good fuck, ...a monkey’s fuck, ...a motherfuck, ...a ratfuck, ...a red fuck, ...a roaring fuck, ...a royal fuck, ...two fucks, not care a fuck

[note, however, one-time late 18C use in a poem ‘The Discontented Student’; the word is not spelt out, but the rhyme and the context ensure that the absentee can only be ‘fuck’]

(orig. US) to not care at all.

1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 49: They don’t care a fuck ’ow us’ns live.
1934		H. Miller Tropic of Cancer (1963) 50: I don’t give a fuck any more what’s behind me.
1949		H. Miller Sexus (1969) 36: What we needed was a man, like myself [...] who didn’t give a fuck what happened.
1959		C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 97: I don’t care a f—k what the French call it.
1961		H.S. Thompson letter 19 Oct. in Proud Highway (1997) 290: Not giving a roaring fuck about winning or losing or anything else.
1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 40: [N]ot caring a fuck about Mr Cage’s good reports.
1963		Kerouac letter 23 May in Charters II (1999) 363: Even if the whole of Zen Buddhism was blowing me I couldnt care a fuck.
1965		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Confessions 67: I didn’t give a fugh, one way or the other.
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 185: No, I didn’t, and frankly don’t give a good fuck.
1967		(con. 1950s) McAleer & Dickson Unit Pride (1981) 337: Not that I give a cockeyed fuck.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 223: I don’t give a motherfuck what the goddamn nigger studs said.
1972		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Whoreson 220: I didn’t give a fuck about what they thought about me.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 114: Amazing how some of them stand for it. Or that they think anyone cares a fuck.
1974		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell Plays Solomon (1976) 61: I don’t give a monkey’s fuck what you do, Jock.
1975		S. Selvon Moses Ascending (1984) 136: Well, I don’t give two fucks about your problems.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 56: She [...] jammed it in the goddamn towel rack like who gives a royal fuck.
1986		S. King It (1987) 203: I don’t give a red fuck what you do. Got it?
1987		(con. 1968) Bunch & Cole Reckoning for Kings (1989) 275: Mosby didn’t give a fat fuck about what else had happened.
1987		B. Chatwin Songlines 135: ‘They don’t give a fuck for walls,’ said Red, ‘but they do like a roof for the rain.’.
1993		D. Jarman diary 18 Apr. Smiling in Slow Motion (2000) 332: I couldn’t care a fuck what they write.
1993		T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 47: ‘I don’t give a ratfuck,’ he said.
1995		Mack 10 ‘Based on a True Story’ 🎵 He don’t give a fuck, he got two just like you.
1999		D. Healy Sudden Times 178: I don’t give two fucks where you’re from.
2000		Guardian Weekend 29 Jan. 17: You fuckin’ go on, my son, you really don’t give a fuck, Liam.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 276: Me, a coulden giver fuck.
2001		G. Pelecanos Right As Rain 55: He didn’t give a good fuck if they laughed themselves silly.
2001		(con. 1990s) in J. Miller One of the Guys 132: ‘The guys, they just don’t give a fuck’.
2009		T. Black Gutted 92: Myself, I couldn’t give two fucks about.
2012		G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 123: Jones has a big set of nuts and he gives a good fuck about exactly nothin.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 189: ‘This ol’ boy got lots of firepower and he don’t give two tight fucks about showing it off’.