Care

Care, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Cared (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Caring.] [AS. cearian. See Care, n.] To be anxious or solicitous; to be concerned; to have regard or interest; -- sometimes followed by an objective of measure.

I would not care a pin, if the other three were in.
Shak.

Master, carest thou not that we perish?
Mark. iv. 38.

To care for. (a) To have under watchful attention; to take care of. (b) To have regard or affection for; to like or love.

He cared not for the affection of the house.
Tennyson.

Care (kâr), n. [AS. caru, cearu; akin to OS. kara sorrow, Goth. kara, OHG chara, lament, and perh. to Gr. gh^rys voice. Not akin to cure. Cf. Chary.] 1. A burdensome sense of responsibility; trouble caused by onerous duties; anxiety; concern; solicitude.

Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye,
And where care lodges, sleep will never lie.
Shak.

2. Charge, oversight, or management, implying responsibility for safety and prosperity.

The care of all the churches.
2 Cor. xi. 28.

Him thy care must be to find.
Milton.

Perplexed with a thousand cares.
Shak.

3. Attention or heed; caution; regard; heedfulness; watchfulness; as, take care; have a care.

I thank thee for thy care and honest pains.
Shak.

4. The object of watchful attention or anxiety.

Right sorrowfully mourning her bereaved cares.
Spenser.

Syn. -- Anxiety; solicitude; concern; caution; regard; management; direction; oversight. -- Care, Anxiety, Solicitude, Concern. These words express mental pain in different degress. Care belongs primarily to the intellect, and becomes painful from overburdened thought. Anxiety denotes a state of distressing uneasiness fron the dread of evil. Solicitude expresses the same feeling in a diminished degree. Concern is opposed to indifference, and implies exercise of anxious thought more or less intense. We are careful about the means, solicitous and anxious about the end; we are solicitous to obtain a good, anxious to avoid an evil.