Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(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.
1974		(con. 1966) J. Carroll ‘from the basketball diaries’ in Big Sky (CA) 8 n.p.: I was sick of dressing up in drag for her and I didn’t give a tinker’s fuck about her juicy fantasies.
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.
1985		‘Thommo’ Dict. Aus. Swearing & Sex Sayings 70: I DON’T GIVE A FUCK — I don’t care.
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		P. Corris Lugarno 101: ‘There’s all sorts of things that don’t add up here.’ ‘I don’t give a 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’.
2025		C. Stella Rapino/Amato 187: ‘The boss? Falzone? Why would he give a fuck about somebody like me?’.