childcaren.
/ˈtʃʌɪl(d)kɛː/, U.S. /ˈtʃaɪl(d)ˌkɛ(ə)r/ The care of children, now esp. by a nursery, childminder, etc., while parents are working; (also, esp. in early use) temporary residential care provided by a local authority for children considered to be vulnerable (cf. care n.1 4c).
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > safety > protection or defence > care, protection, or charge > [noun] > care for or looking after > care of child or children
childcare1896
childminding1918
kangaroo care1991
1896 Appletons' Pop. Sci. Monthly June 249 What was the weaving, the sewing, the cooking, the doctoring, the nursing, the child-care, the ‘work that was never done,’ if it was not earning a subsistence?
1901 Ethical Rec. Apr. 185/2 Most of these agencies for child-care used indenture, adoption, and the placing out of children as part of their provisions.
1945 Marriage & Family Living 7 81/1 Some women find release from the continual restriction of twenty-four-hour-a-day child care through the help of parents and friends in occasional baby-sitting.
1988 N.Y. Times 8 Aug. a1/5 Flexible working hours, child care and lenient maternity leave..have created a new category of law firm associates who work with no prospects of advancement in what some lawyers call ‘the mommy track’.
1997 Independent 2 July 5/3 Because their wives worked they had to manage their working lives better and do more childcare.
2005 Daily Tel. (Sydney) (Nexis) 10 Oct. 7 Parents in outer Sydney are paying as little as $30 a day for childcare while their inner-city counterparts fork out three times that much for precious few places.
Compounds
General attributive.
ΚΠ
1914 W. Harbutt Munic. Life & Govt. Germany Index 501 Child-care movement and centres.
1960 Guardian 9 Nov. 6/5 Most child-care officers can produce examples of this type of failure.
2010 Grocer Feb. 76/4 Flexible benefits that allow employees to choose from a menu of benefits such as extra holidays, private healthcare, childcare vouchers etc.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1896