Slang dictionary
zero fucks
[zeer-oh fuhks]
What does zero fucks mean?
Nada. That’s how many fucks the expression zero fucks gives.
Giving zero fucks is to be unconcerned or unfazed by something … especially people’s opinions about you.
Related words:
- not give a damn
- sorry not sorry
- zero fucks given
- ZFG
Where does zero fucks come from?
If you don’t give a fuck—or care the least bit about something—then you can cleverly say you give zero fucks about it.
Not giving a fuck is found in slang by the 1920s, though a 1790 poem implies the meaning. It’s not clear when or where zero fucks begins, but it started adding up in the late 2000s and early 2010s.
Zero fucks emerges on Twitter in 2009, when one user gave us a textbook example:
Urinated in public all over Sausalito, giving zero fucks.
— Charles Bronson Crew (@therealCBC) March 29, 2009
Urban Dictionary entered the term in 2011, probably on the backs of two memes, Look At All The Fucks I Give and Not a Single Fuck Was Given That Day.
Know your Meme
Know Your Meme
By 2015, journalist Alex Wagner described President Obama as being at zero-fucks stage of his presidency.
The phrase was further popularized in 2016, when singer Erika Jayne released the single “How Many Fucks?” with the chorus “How many fucks do I give? None, not one, zero, zero, zero, done.”
Examples of zero fucks
Who uses zero fucks?
People use zero fucks in speech and writing for expressive effect (e.g., I have no fucks left to give. Zero fucks). It also forms many image macros, used online in reactions and comments, especially as zero fucks given.
Online, zero fucks is often a humorous punchline to rhetorical questions like the one Erika Jayne poses: You wanna know how many fucks I give right now? Zero. Zero fucks.
People also sometimes use the abbreviations ZFG (zero fucks given) and IGZF (I give zero fucks).
AT THE OFFICE BLASTING (playing softly, w/ headphones) TAYLOR SWIFT BC IGZF TODAY/EVER
— Jeffrey Masters (@jeffmasters1) February 11, 2015
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of zero fucks like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of zero fucks that will help our users expand their word mastery.