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day care

noun
variants: or less commonly daycare or day-care
Updated on: 16 May 2018
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1 : supervision of and care for children or physically or mentally disabled adults that is provided during the day by a person or organization —often used before another noun
  • a day care center
  • day care workers
  • day-care facilities
2 : a program, facility, or organization offering day care
  • a child enrolled in day care

See day care defined for English-language learners

See day care defined for kids

Examples of day care in a Sentence

  1. She left work early to pick up her son from day care.

Recent Examples of day care from the Web

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'day care.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of day care

1898

in the meaning defined at sense 1

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DAY CARE Defined for English Language Learners

day care

noun

  • : a place, program, or organization that takes care of children or sick adults during the day usually while their family members are at work

DAY CARE Defined for Kids

day care

noun
: a program in which or a place where care is provided during the day for young children

Learn More about day care

  1. Spanish Central: Translation of day care

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Examples: day care in a Sentence