day care

variants: or less commonly daycare \ ˈdā-ˌker

How to pronounce daycare (audio)

\ or day-care

Definition of day care

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 nouna day care centerday care workersday-care facilities

2 : a program, facility, or organization offering day care a child enrolled in day care

Examples of day care in a Sentence

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

Recent Examples on the Web At the state level, a total of $45 million in grants is available to nonprofit schools, day care centers and other entities that may be vulnerable to attack. — Liam Stack, New York Times, "‘I Lose Sleep Over This Building’: A Rush to Make Synagogues Safe," 4 Feb. 2020 And the state Department of Health Services has developed a program to reduce lead in water at schools and day care centers. — Molly Beck, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Lawmakers, Evers release plans to address water contamination in Wisconsin," 8 Jan. 2020 The reasons why are obvious — the cost of living is so laughable here that a day care slot will set you back, on an annual basis, the GDP of a small country. — Caille Millner, SFChronicle.com, "Why would anyone bring a baby into the world that is SF?," 31 Jan. 2020 According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Ward, a day care teacher from Milwaukee, had checked into the ER at Froedtert Hospital at 4:58 p.m to seek medical treatment for her symptoms. — Dave Quinn, PEOPLE.com, "Woman with Chest Pains Left Emergency Room with Long Wait Times and Died Shortly After," 14 Jan. 2020 Tashonna Ward, a 25-year-old day care teacher from Milwaukee, died Jan. 2 while trying to find a doctor to help her. — Rory Linnane, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "A Milwaukee woman who sat in the ER with chest pain for hours left because of the wait time — and died soon after," 11 Jan. 2020 Prior to the temporary suspension, the DHS licensed the home day care for a capacity of 10 children, with no more than eight children to be under school age. — Forum News Service, Twin Cities, "Brainerd-area day care under investigation after infant’s death," 19 Nov. 2019 German lawmakers approve mandatory measles vaccinations: Germany's parliament passed a law requiring that children who attend school or day care must be vaccinated for measles. — Washington Post, "World Digest: Nov. 14, 2019," 14 Nov. 2019 California has some of the nation’s tightest childhood immunization laws, requiring vaccinations to attend public or private schools, as well as day care. — Los Angeles Times, "California vaccine bill exemption rules agreed to by Newsom and lawmakers," 6 Sep. 2019

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.

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Last Updated

21 Feb 2020

Cite this Entry

“Day care.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/day%20care. Accessed 22 Feb. 2020.

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