care package


noun
  1. Also CARE package. a package containing food, clothing, or other items sent as necessities to people in need of them.

  2. a gift of treats to relatives or friends, especially of items not readily available to them: She sends monthly care packages of homemade cookies to her son at college.

Origin of care package

1
First recorded in 1945–50; from the aid packages distributed by CARE

Words Nearby care package

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use care package in a sentence

Other Idioms and Phrases with care package

care package

A gift package of food or other items not readily available to the recipient, as in While I was in college, Mom sent me a care package of homemade cookies just about every month. This term originated after World War II with CARE, an organization founded to send needed food, clothing, and other items to war-torn nations. By the 1960s the term had been transferred to sending packages of treats to children at camp, students away at school, and the like.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.