Do

Pronunciation

• UK enPR: doÍžo, IPA: /duː/
• US enPR: doÍžo, IPA: /du/
• AusE IPA: /dʉː/
• Rhymes: -uː
• Homophones: dew, doo, due

From Middle English don ("to do"), from Old English dōn ("to do"), from Proto-Germanic *dōną ("to do"), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ("to put, place, do, make"). Cognate with Scots dae ("to to"), West Frisian dwaan ("to do"), Dutch doen ("to do"), Low German doon ("to do"), German tun ("to do"), Latin facio ("I do, make"), Ancient Greek τίθημι, Lithuanian dėti ("to put"), Polish dziać ("to happen"), Albanian ndodh ("to happen, occur, to be located"), Russian делать ("to do"), Sanskrit दधाति, Russian деть ("to put, to place").

Verb

1. (auxiliary) A syntactic marker in questions.
   Do you go there often?
2. (auxiliary) A syntactic marker in negations.
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 4, “Well,” I answered, at first with uncertainty, then with inspiration, “he would do splendidly to lead your cotillon, if you think of having one.” ¶ “So you do not dance, Mr. Crocker?” ¶ I was somewhat set back by her perspicuity.
3. I do not go there often.
4. (auxiliary) A syntactic marker for emphasis.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 7, “I don't know how you and the ‘head,’ as you call him, will get on, but I do know that if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there'll be trouble. It's bad enough to go around togged out like a life saver on a drill day, but I can stand that 'cause I'm paid for it. …”
5. But I do go sometimes.
6. (auxiliary) A syntactic marker to avoid repetition of an earlier verb.
   I play tennis; she does too.
7. (transitive) To perform; to execute.
• 2013-06-21, Oliver Burkeman, The tao of tech, The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about …, or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing",...and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.
8. all you ever do is surf the Internet;  what will you do this afternoon?
9. (obsolete) To cause, make (someone) (do something).
• 1590, Edmund Spenser, ''The Faerie Queene, II.vi:Sometimes to doe him laugh, she would assay
  To laugh at shaking of the leaues light,
  Or to behold the water worke ...
• W. CaxtonMy lord Abbot of Westminster did do shewe to me late certain evidences.
• Spensera fatal plague which many did to die
• Bible, 2 Cor. viii. 1We do you to wit we make you to know of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia.
10. (intransitive, transitive) To suffice.
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 4, “Well,” I answered, at first with uncertainty, then with inspiration, “he would do splendidly to lead your cotillon, if you think of having one.” ¶ “So you do not dance, Mr. Crocker?” ¶ I was somewhat set back by her perspicuity.
• 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit"Here," she said, "take your old Bunny! He'll do to sleep with you!" And she dragged the Rabbit out by one ear, and put him into the Boy's arms.
11. it’s not the best broom, but it will have to do;  this will do me, thanks.
12. (intransitive) To be reasonable or acceptable.
    It simply will not do to have dozens of children running around such a quiet event.
13. (transitive) To have (as an effect).
    The fresh air did him some good.
14. (intransitive) To fare; to succeed or fail.
• 2013-07-20, Welcome to the plastisphere, Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.
15. Our relationship isn't doing very well;  how do you do?
16. (transitive, chiefly in questions) To have as one's job.
    What does Bob do? — He's a plumber.
17. To cook.
• It seemed, from his account, that he was very good at doing scrambled eggs.
• We went down below, and the galley-slave did some ham and eggs, and the first lieutenant, who was aged 19, told me about Sicily, and time went like a flash.
• Next morning, they woke about ten o'clock, Kev, went for a shower while Alice, did some toast, put the kettle on, and when he came out, she went in.
18. I'll just do some eggs.
19. (transitive) To travel in, to tour, to make a circuit of.
• We 'did' London to our heart's content, thanks to Fred and Frank, and were sorry to go away, ...
• After doing Paris and its suburbs, I started for London ...
• No tourist can get credit for seeing America first without doing New York, the Wonderful Town, the Baghdad-on-Hudson, the dream in the eye of the Kansas hooker ...
20. Let’s do New York also.
21. To treat in a certain way.
• They did me well, I assure you — uncommon well: Bellinger of '84; green chartreuse fit for a prince; ...
• 1928, Dorothy L. Sayers, "The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers", in Lord Peter Views the Body,Upon my word, although he host certainly did me uncommonly well, I began to feel I'd be more at ease among the bushmen.
• "Why you gonna do me like that?" I ask. "Do what?" "Dog me."
22. To act or behave in a certain manner; to conduct oneself.
• Bible, 2 Kings xvii. 34They fear not the Lord, neither do they after ... the law and commandment.
23. (transitive) To spend (time) in jail.
    I did five years for armed robbery.
24. (transitive) To impersonate or depict.
    They really laughed when he did Clinton, with a perfect accent and a leer.
25. (transitive, slang) To kill.
• He's gonna do me, Jarvis. I kid you not, this time he's gonna do me proper.
• The order came and I did him right there. The bullet went right where it was supposed to go.
26. (transitive, slang) To have sex with. (See also do it)
• Off cook went, out we came, and never fucked in that place again; ...
  one day I did her on the kitchen table, and several times on the dining-room table.
• The uninhibited woman within wanted to do him right there on the countertop, but I remained composed.
27. (transitive) To cheat or swindle.
    That guy just did me out of two hundred bucks!
• De QuinceyHe was not to be done, at his time of life, by frivolous offers of a compromise that might have secured him seventy-five per cent.
28. (transitive) To convert into a certain form; especially, to translate.
    the novel has just been done into English;  I'm going to do do this play into a movie
29. (transitive, intransitive) To finish.
    Aren't you done yet?
30. (UK, dated, intransitive) To work as a domestic servant (with for).
• 1915, Frank Thomas Bullen, RecollectionsI've left my key in my office in Manchester, my family are at Bournemouth, and the old woman who does for me goes home at nine o'clock.
31. (archaic, dialectal, transitive, auxiliary) Used to form the present progressive of verbs.
• 1844, William Barnes, Evenén in the Village, Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect:...An' the dogs do bark, an' the rooks be a-vled to the elems high and dark, an' the water do roar at mill.
32. (stock exchange) To cash or to advance money for, as a bill or note.

Usage notes

In older forms of English, when the pronoun thou was in active use and verbs had a distinct second-person singular present-tense form, the verb do had two such forms: dost, in helping-verb uses, and doest, in other uses. (Naturally, these are both now archaic, though doest is less common than dost even as an archaism.) Similarly, when the ending -eth was in active use for third-person singular present-tense forms, the form doth was used as a helping verb, and the form doeth elsewhere; these have both been supplanted by the current form does, except in archaisms, where doth is more common than doeth.

Antonyms

• don't

Derived terms

From the above verb.

Full definition of do

Noun

1. (colloquial) A party, celebration, social function.We’re having a bit of a do on Saturday to celebrate my birthday.
• 2013, Russell Brand, Russell Brand and the GQ awards: 'It's amazing how absurd it seems' (in The Guardian, 13 September 2013)http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/sep/13/russell-brand-gq-awards-hugo-bossAfter a load of photos and what-not, we descend the world's longest escalator, which are called that even as they de-escalate, and in we go to the main forum, a high ceilinged hall, full of circular cloth-draped, numbered tables, a stage at the front, the letters GQ, 12-foot high in neon at the back; this aside, though, neon forever the moniker of trash, this is a posh do, in an opera house full of folk in tuxes.
2. (informal) A hairdo.Nice do!
3. (colloquial, obsolete) A period of confusion or argument.
4. Something that can or should be done (usually in the phrase dos and don'ts).
5. (obsolete) A deed; an act.
6. (archaic) ado; bustle; stir; to-do
• SeldenA great deal of do, and a great deal of trouble.
7. (obsolete, UK, slang) A cheat; a swindler.

Synonyms

• (period of confusion or argument) to-do
• (party, celebration) get-together

Usage notes

For the plural of the noun, the spelling dos would be correct; do's is often used for the sake of legibility, but is sometimes considered incorrect. For the party, the term is generally used only by older adults and usually implies a social function of modest size and formality.

Pronunciation

• UK enPR: dō, IPA: /dəʊ/
• US enPR: dō, IPA: /doÊŠ/
• Rhymes: -əʊ
• Homophones: doe, dough

From Italian do.

Alternative forms

• doh

Noun

1. (music) A syllable used in solfège to represent the first and eighth tonic of a major scale.

Synonyms

• ut archaic

Short for ditto.

Adverb

1. (rare) Abbreviation of ditto

Anagrams

• od, OD