Not give a tinker's cuss

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Meaning

Not care at all about someone or something; have no interest in or concern for it.

Origin

This is a softened British form of not give a tinker's damn or curse. It draws on the long-standing stereotype that itinerant metalworkers swore freely, so one more tinker-associated oath was treated as plentiful and of little consequence. Cuss is a colloquial form of curse, not the name of a tinker tool or a temporary soldering barrier. The family of expressions is documented from the early nineteenth century and should now be treated as old-fashioned informal language.

Research Sources

  1. not give a tinker's cuss Cambridge Dictionary
  2. tinker / tinker's damn Wordorigins.org

Variants

  • Not give a tinker's damn
  • Not give a tinker's curse
  • Not care a tinker's cuss

Usage Examples

  • Ruth does not give a tinker's cuss about fashionable labels; she buys what lasts.
  • The board seemed not to give a tinker's damn about the residents' objections.
  • I do not care a tinker's curse who gets the credit, provided the bridge is repaired.

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