ˈdevil-may-ˈcare, a. (and n.)
Also erroneously devil-me-care.
[The exclamation devil may care! used as an attribute.]
Wildly reckless; careless and rollicking. Hence as n., a devil-may-care person, attitude, etc.
| [1793 Regal Rambler 95 Deel care, said Dr. Leveller, loud enough to be heard.] 1837 Dickens Pickw. xlix, He was a mighty free and easy, roving, devil-may-care sort of person. 1857 G. W. Thornbury Songs of Cavaliers 120, I and some seventy devil-may-cares Rode to Bristol. [1858 M. Porteous Souter Johnny 8 But deil-ma-care! my facts are clear.] 1858 Lytton What will he do ii. ii, He..looked altogether as devil-me-care, rakehelly, handsome, good-for-nought as ever swore at a drawer. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xi. (1889) 103 A face radiant with devil-may-care delight. 1870 R. Broughton Red as a Rose i. 3 The salt of a racy, devil-me-care wit. 1887 W. M. Rossetti Life of Keats vi, Without any aggressive or ‘devil-may-care’ addenda. 1928 Manch. Guardian Weekly 21 Sept. 230/3 An air of devil-may-care. |
Hence devil-may-ˈcareness (erron. -ˈcarelessness); devil-may-ˈcarish a., -ˈcarishness, -ˈcarism, nonce-wds.
| 1833 Fraser's Mag. VII. 693 Similar attempts at a jaunty devil-me-carishness. 1841 Tait's Mag. VIII. 221 From them he dates that devil-may-carism, that recklessness of the world and the world's law. 1842 Lytton Zanoni iv. v, A devil-me-carish air. 1890 M{supc}Carthy Fr. Rev. I. 22 The wantonness, the licence, the devil-may-careness of the Regency. 1891 Blackw. Mag. CXLIX 510/1 There was more of Hibernian devil-may-care-lessness than of Saxon foresight. |