take care

take care idiom
  1. Be careful, use caution, as in Take care or you will slip on the ice. [Late 1500s]
  2. Good-bye, as in I have to go now; take care. This apparent abbreviation of take care of yourself is used both orally and in writing, where it sometimes replaces the conventional Sincerely or Love in signing off correspondence. [Colloquial; 1960s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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