🧑‍🍼 Looking after ⏳ Temporary official 🏢 Temporary management

caretaking

3.9

Serving temporarily as a substitute in an official role

adjective
/ˈkɛrˌteɪkɪŋ/

Formal

: interino

After the sudden resignation, he stepped into a caretaking position to guide the team.

Examples

The caretaking manager ensured everything ran smoothly during the transition period.
Lou was a very caretaking guy, and I think that that was the original attraction.
She took a caretaking role at the school while they searched for a new principal.

Synonyms

acting

vscaretaking

3 3.7

Temporarily doing the job of the usual person

is used for serving until a permanent replacement is found

subbing

vscaretaking

Informal

1 5.9

Work done in place of someone who is ill or away

is broader applying to temporary official roles pending permanent appointment

Antonyms

permanent

650 3.2

Continuing for a long time and unlikely to change

How Temporary

interim

113 5.0

temporary

2 5.3

caretaking

Formal

3.9

acting

3 3.7

substitute

211 3.2

Surface Forms

caretaking positive

Morphology

caretaking = caretake (opaque) = care + take + ing

The form is built from the idea of 'caretake' plus '-ing', but the sense 'serving in a temporary official role' is a specialized extension rather than a straightforward result of the base meaning.

Etymology

Caretaking comes from the parts care and taking, which together mean 'to take care' or 'to look after'. So a caretaking manager is someone who 'takes care' of a job for a short time until a permanent person is chosen.