# do

Pronunciation: say "DOO" US /du/, UK /duː/

## Verb

1. To perform or carry out an action, task, or activity, or the work needed on something, as in 'do your homework', 'do the dishes'.
   - Simple: To carry out an action or job, as in 'do your homework' or 'do the dishes'.
   - _I'll do the shopping on the way home if you start dinner._
   - _She did everything she had promised._
2. Used as an auxiliary before a main verb to form questions and negative statements or commands, as in 'Do you know?', 'I do not know' and 'Don't go.'
   - Simple: Used before another verb to ask questions or to say not, as in 'Do you like it?' or 'I don't know.'
   - _We do not open on Sundays._
   - _She did not answer the letter._
3. Used in place of a verb already mentioned so it need not be repeated, but not normally for be.
   - Simple: Used instead of repeating a verb already said, but not usually for 'be'.
   - _I play tennis, and she does too._
   - _They enjoy the theater as much as we do._
4. Used as an auxiliary for emphasis, stressing that something is indeed the case or urging an action.
   - Simple: Used to make a statement or order stronger.
   - _I do like your new haircut, whatever your brother says._
   - _She does look tired this morning._
5. To get on or perform in a particular way, whether well or poorly.
   - Simple: To get along or perform in a certain way, well or badly.
   - _Small shops often do poorly when a big chain store opens nearby._
   - _The new show did better in the ratings than anyone expected._
6. To finish, with or without an object, chiefly in perfect tenses.
   - Simple: To finish something, mostly in have done or be done.
   - _Tell me when you've done and I'll lock up._
   - _Once the builders have done, we can paint._
7. With two objects, to have a particular effect on someone or something.
   - Simple: To have a good or bad effect on someone or something.
   - _A week by the sea will do her the world of good._
   - _The delay did the project no harm at all._
8. To treat someone in a particular way, generously or badly.
   - Simple: To treat someone in a certain way, well or badly.
   - _The hotel did us very well, with a free dinner on our last night._
   - _Don't do him like that, he was only trying to help._
9. To provide something as a service or as part of one's trade. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To offer something as a service, like haircuts or repairs.
   - _We do weddings but not funerals, the florist said._
   - _That shop does repairs while you wait._
10. To be enough, suitable, or acceptable for a purpose, as in 'any box will do' or 'that simply won't do'.
   - Simple: To be good enough or acceptable, as in 'Any box will do.'
   - _Any old box will do for the kittens._
   - _That old blanket will do to keep the puppy warm tonight._
11. To have as one's occupation, chiefly in questions.
   - Simple: To have as your job, mostly in the question what do you do?
   - _My brother wants to know what you do for a living._
   - _I never found out what he did before he retired._
12. To cook or prepare food, usually something quick and simple, as in 'I'll do some eggs'.
   - Simple: To cook or make food, like eggs or toast.
   - _On Sunday mornings Dad does pancakes for the whole family._
   - _Shall I do a roast on Sunday?_
13. To work for someone or on something by cleaning, caring for, or keeping it in order, often with for.
   - Simple: To clean or look after a place or a person as a job.
   - _The woman who did for them came on Tuesdays and Fridays._
   - _I do three houses on this street every week._
15. To take or use a drug, typically a recreational one.
   - Simple: To take a drug, especially an illegal one.
   - _I don't do drugs and I don't drink._
   - _They did a lot of speed back then, he said._
16. To be in a place for some purpose or reason, used in the form be doing with a place, often to ask why.
   - Simple: To be somewhere for a reason, often in questions that ask why something is there.
   - _What was a letter from the bank doing in my brother's coat pocket?_
   - _Nobody could explain what a seal was doing so far up the river._
17. To have sexual intercourse with someone. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To have sex with someone.
   - _People said she'd done him on the first date, but that wasn't true._
   - _He told the whole bar he was going to do her, and she left._
18. To serve a period of time in prison.
   - Simple: To spend a period of time in prison as a punishment.
   - _She did eighteen months and came out a different person._
   - _Most of them will do a couple of years at most._
19. To drive a vehicle at a stated speed, often measured against the speed limit. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To drive at a certain speed.
   - _The old van won't do more than sixty._
   - _She was doing ninety when the police pulled her over._
20. To impersonate or depict someone, as a comedian or mimic does.
   - Simple: To copy the way someone talks or acts, often to make people laugh.
   - _She does her old headmistress so well that the whole class collapses._
   - _Can you do a Scottish accent?_
21. To tour a place or make the circuit of its sights.
   - Simple: To visit a place as a tourist and see its sights.
   - _We spent the week doing Rome on foot, from the Colosseum to the Vatican._
   - _You can't do the whole museum in an afternoon._
24. With a and a name, to repeat the behavior a person, place, or event is known for.
   - Simple: To copy what a famous person, place or event is known for, with 'a' before the name.
   - _He did a Cinderella and left the party at midnight._
   - _Nobody expected the 'unsinkable' startup to do a Titanic within a year._
25. To injure one of one's own body parts. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To hurt a part of your own body, like a knee or shoulder.
   - _He'll do a hamstring if he doesn't warm up._
   - _She knew straight away she'd done her knee._
26. To cheat or swindle someone, often with out of.
   - Simple: To cheat someone so that they lose money or something they own.
   - _The dealer did him out of a thousand dollars on the trade-in._
   - _That landlord will do you out of your whole deposit if you let him._
28. To deal with someone once and for all, or to ruin or undo them. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To ruin someone or finish them off for good.
   - _The bookmakers made it clear that if he hadn't paid what he owed by Friday, they would do him._
   - _If the bank calls in the loan, that will do for us._
29. To punish someone for a minor offense, as the law or a teacher does. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To punish someone for breaking a small rule or law.
   - _If they catch you, they'll do you for trespassing._
   - _My brother got done for parking on the pavement._
30. To act or conduct oneself in a particular manner.
   - Simple: To act or behave in a certain way.
   - _When you are a guest in another country, do as your hosts do._
   - _He did well to sell the farm before the drought._
31. To cover a stated distance or make a particular journey, or, of a vehicle, to have run up a given total mileage.
   - Simple: To travel a certain distance or route, or (of a car) to have gone a certain number of miles in total.
   - _Serious cyclists do sixty miles on a Saturday without thinking twice._
   - _The van had only done 30,000 miles when the transmission failed._

## Noun

14. Something that can or should be done, found mainly in the fixed phrase dos and don'ts.
   - Simple: Something that you can or should do, used mostly in the phrase dos and don'ts.
   - _Every new employee gets a printed sheet of dos and don'ts for working in the lab._
   - _Her etiquette column covers the dos and don'ts of wedding gifts._
22. A social occasion or celebration, usually neither very large nor very formal. *(colloquial, UK)*
   - Simple: In British English, a party or other social event.
   - _The office do is on the last Friday before Christmas._
   - _They had a small do at the pub after the wedding._
23. Informal clipping of hairdo, a hairstyle, especially a new or noticeable one. *(colloquial)* — Clipping of hairdo.
   - Simple: A short, informal word for a hairdo, the way hair is styled.
   - _She came back from the salon with a completely new do._
   - _Her do had survived the wind better than mine._
27. In solfège, the syllable sung for the first note of a major scale (the tonic) in movable-do systems, or for the note C in fixed-do systems, followed by re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti. (pronounced: say "DOH" US /doʊ/, UK /dəʊ/)
   - Simple: In music, the sung name for the first note of a scale, as in do re mi, or for the note C.
   - _In movable do, the tonic of any key is sung as do._
   - _The director hummed do so the choir could find the key._

## Other meanings

- (verb) In questions, should, especially when asking how to handle a task that will be repeated.
- (verb) In some dialects, used before a main verb to show an action in progress, where standard English uses be with an -ing form.
- (verb) To make or cause someone to perform an action.
- (verb) To grow and flourish, or of farm animals, to put on weight well.
- (verb) To kill someone, especially on purpose.
- (verb) To put something into another form, especially another language, as in a work rendered into English.
- (verb) To pay cash for a bill of exchange or promissory note, or lend money against it.
- (noun) A completed deed or action.
- (noun) A fuss, commotion, or noisy disturbance, or a spell of confusion or quarreling.
- (noun) A person who tricks others out of money, a con artist.
- (noun) A trick or scam used to cheat someone.
- (noun) A killing, especially a murder.
- (adverb) A written short form of ditto, used in lists to mean the same as above.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–26, 28–31** — From Middle English don, from Old English dōn, from Proto-Germanic *dōną, ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *dʰeh₁- ("to put, place, do, make"). Its many relatives include the doublets deed, deem, and -dom, and, through other languages, words like feast, theme, and thesis. Some linguists think the meaningless use of "do" in questions and negatives ("Do you like it?") may be a Brittonicism calqued from Brythonic.
**Meaning 27** — Traditionally credited to the Italian musicologist Giovanni Battista Doni in the 17th century, as an easier-to-sing revision of Guido of Arezzo's syllable "ut," taken from the first syllable of Latin Dominus ("The Lord"), with the justification that God is the tonic and root of the world. Some also speculate it was an abbreviation of Doni's own name.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/do (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).