Don't

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /dəʊnt/
• US IPA: /doÊŠnt/
• Rhymes: -əʊnt

Origin

From do + -n't.

Full definition of don't

Contraction

• 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. …”
• The Police, "Don't Stand So Close to Me", Zenyatta Mondatta, A&M Records:Don't Stand, Don't stand so, Don't stand so close to me.
1. (nonstandard)
• 1971, Carol King, “So Far Away”, Tapestry, Ode Records:I sure hope the road don’t come to own me.
• 2000, w, My girlfriend's jealous 'cause I talk about you twenty-four seven
  But she don't know you like I know you, Slim, no one does
  She don't know what it was like for people like us growing up
  You gotta call me man, I'll be the biggest fan you'll ever lose
• 2012, w, She don't like the flash, wanna keep us in the dark
  She don't like the fame, baby when we're miles apart
• 2013, w, The highway don't care
2. (African American Vernacular English) Used before an emphatic negative subject.Don’t nobody care.

Interjection

1. Stop!, Don't do that!

Noun

1. Something that must not be done usually in the phrase dos and don'ts.

Antonyms

• do

Derived terms

• dos and don'ts