carer
(ˈkɛərə(r))
[f. care v.]
a. One who cares.
| 1691 Norris Pract. Disc. 185 The immoderate Carers for the World. 1850 Browning Christmas Eve 166 A carer for none of it, a Gallio? |
b. spec. A person whose occupation is the care of the sick, aged, disabled, etc.; one who looks after a disabled or elderly relative at home, esp. one who is therefore unable to work. Cf. caring ppl. a.
| 1978 Age & Ageing VII. 107 A much lower proportion of patients with chief carers in social classes one and two were admitted than those in three, four and five. 1980 Times Lit. Suppl. 9 May 530/4 Some professional ‘carers’..make therapeutic work a substitute for living and can no longer even tell whether they like or dislike a person in ordinary life. 1982 Times 7 May 2/6 More money should be spent on the carers—those people, mainly women and mainly unpaid, who look after old and handicapped relations. 1985 New Age Summer 7/3 Believers in Cosmic nursing..distribute information and supportive literature to carers in hospital and in homes, and to relatives of elderly people. 1985 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 17 Aug. 465/1 Carers, usually women, are the welfare state's solution to an expensive problem. |