What it means
Short for can't be arsed, a very British little text sigh that means you can't be bothered and you're not pretending otherwise. You drop cba when plans, chores, messages or effort in general feel like too much. It's common in texts, group chats, captions and online chat, where three letters do the job of a full eye-roll.
Usage examples
"Mate, cba with the pub quiz tonight, the rain is sideways and my sofa is winning the argument by a mile."
"Boss asked if anyone wanted to do the Saturday cover, the group chat went silent for nine minutes, then someone finally typed cba lol."
"You coming out after work or are you doing that fake maybe thing again? Nah, cba, my bed's already calling me by my government name."
"Mum said ring your aunt back tonight. Cba, I'll send a heart emoji and let fate handle the rest."
"Asked if I'm doing the family barbecue setup at 8am and honestly cba, I'll arrive when the sausages are already living their best life."
Where it comes from
CBA is just the texting squeeze of can't be arsed, a very British way of saying you really can't be bothered. It showed up in SMS and online chat in the 2000s, when people were chopping common phrases down to fast little mood grenades. In the UK, CBA stuck because it says a whole lazy eye-roll in three letters.
Other ways to say it
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