do

The cardinal number occurring after el and before do one in a duodecimal system. Written 10, decimal value 12.

Adverb

  1. Abbreviation of ditto.
    • Softest flowers, .. J. P. Robson, 335 / Stars of Hartlepool, .. do 356 - [1849], “Contents”, in J[oseph] P[hilip] Robson, editor, Songs of the Bards of the Tyne; or, A Choice Selection of Original Songs Chiefly in the...
    • Michael Higgins, 51, Back lane / John Mulligan, 53, do - 1862 October 23, “The O'Connell National Statue”, in The Freeman's Journal, Dublin, page 2:

Origin

Short for ditto.

Forms

do.

Noun UK, informal

  1. A party, celebration, social function; usually of moderate size and formality.
    • We’re having a bit of a do on Saturday to celebrate my birthday.
    • She was into French cuisine but I ain't no Cordon Bleu / This was at some do in Palmers Green, I had no luck with her - 1980, Jona Lewie, Keef Trouble, “You'll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties”, performed by...
    • A gross-gutted, bulb-nosed, bourbon-stanky Boston flatfoot in plain clothes wrinkled white sox, with a race track tip-sheet stuffed in his back pocket trying real hard to mingle unnoticed at an elegant Buddies "do" to...

    Synonyms: get-together bash blowout do gala knees-up partay party shindig shivoo

  2. Clipping of hairdo.
    • Nice do!
    • I don't like to spend time on my hairstyle, so I usually just wear a do-rag.
    • I like the new do. - 2012, Hannah Richell, The Secrets of the Tides, →ISBN, page 464:

    Related: 'do

  3. Something that can or should be done.
    • Don’t forget the dos and don’ts.
    • With the coming of Monday arrived a new life for David—a curious life full of "don'ts" and "dos." - 1916, Eleanor H. Porter, chapter VIII, in Just David:

    Antonyms: don't

  4. Something that has been done.
    • "How come you quit?" "I'm moving to London." "Fair dos."
  5. Ado; bustle; stir; to-do; A period of confusion or argument.
    • A great deal of do, and a great deal of trouble. - 1689, John Selden, Table Talk:

    Synonyms: to-do

  6. A cheat; a swindler.
  7. An act of swindling; a fraud or deception.
  8. A homicide.
    • Get it done, no not properly Them man thought that they got me True, I came back like a fucking zombie Attempted do with the ching Have an opp boy say “please don’t chong me!” - 2020 December 4, “No fibs” (1:34 from the...

Origin

From Middle English don, from Old English dōn, from Proto-West Germanic *dōn, from Proto-Germanic *dōną, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put, place, do, make”). For senses 4 and 5, compare Old Norse duga, also Northern English dow. The past tense form is from Middle English didde, dude, from Old English dyde, *diede, an unexpected development from Proto-Germanic *dedǭ/*dedē (the expected reflex would be *ded), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰédʰeh₁ti, an athematic e-reduplicated verb of the same root *dʰeh₁-. The meaningless use of do in interrogative, negative, and affirmative sentences (e.g. "Do you like painting?" "Yes, I do"), existing in some form in most Germanic languages, is thought by some linguists to be one of the Brittonicisms in English, calqued from Brythonic. It is first recorded in Middle English, where it may have marked the perfective aspect, though in some cases the...

Forms

dos do's doos de dee

Derived

dos and don'ts hag do hen do stag do sten do

Noun entertainment, lifestyle

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

    Synonyms: ut

Origin

Coined by Italian musicologist Giovanni Battista Doni in 1635 as an easier-to-sing open-syllable revision to the solmization ut of Guido of Arezzo, from the first syllable of Latin Dominus (“The Lord”) (speculated by some to be an ulterior abbreviation of Giovanni Battista Doni) on the pattern of other Latinate solfège with the stated justification that God is the tonic and root of the world.

Forms

dos doh Do

Related

fa la mi re so ti

Numeral

  1. The cardinal number occurring after el and before do one in a duodecimal system. Written 10, decimal value 12.

Origin

Shortening of dozen.

Related

gro mo do loop do svidaniya do svidanya whoop de do whoop-de-do whoop-dee-do whoopee do whoopee-do whoopy-do whoopy do woopty-do woopy do

Verb

  1. A syntactic marker.
    • Do you go there often?

    1. A syntactic marker in a question whose main verb is not another auxiliary verb or be.

    2. A syntactic marker in negations with the indicative and imperative moods.

      • I do not go there often.
      • Do not listen to him.
      • “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...

    3. A syntactic marker for emphasis with the indicative, imperative, and subjunctive moods.

      • But I do go sometimes.
      • Do tell us.
      • Boy, did I make a mistake!

    4. (pro-verb) A syntactic marker that refers back to an earlier verb and allows the speaker to avoid repeating the verb; in most dialects, not used with auxiliaries such as be, though it can be in AAVE.

      • I play tennis; she does too.
      • Likes her cappuccino, Mary does. (UK, colloquial)
      • Your remarks piqued my curiosity, as it did my mom's too.

    5. (modal, interrogative, informal) Should; ought to (especially in respect of a task to be repeated).

      • Do I just call every number on the list each time?

      Synonyms: should

    6. (dialectal) Used to form the present progressive of verbs.

      • ...An' the dogs do bark, an' the rooks be a-vled to the elems high and dark, an' the water do roar at mill. - 1844, William Barnes, “Evenén in the Village”, in Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect:
  2. To perform; to execute.
    • If you want something done, do it yourself.
    • All you ever do is surf the Internet. What will you do this afternoon?
    • I love doing puzzles, especially crosswords, but lately I've taken to sudokus too.

    Synonyms: accomplish carry out functionate

  3. To cause or make (someone) (do something).
    • And also my lorde abbot of westmynster ded do shewe to me late, certayn euydences wryton in olde englysshe […]; - 1490, William Caxton, “Prologue”, in Eneydos; republished as Caxton's Eneydos, London: Early English Text...
    • Sometimes to do him laugh, ſhe would aſſay / To laugh at ſhaking off the leaues light, / Or to behold the water worke […] - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe]...
    • Emongſt the reſt a wicked maladie / Raign’d emongſt men, that manie did to die,[…] - 1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale.”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds...
  4. To suffice.
    • make it do or do without
    • it’s not the best broom, but it will have to do; this will do me, thanks.
    • “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...
  5. To be reasonable or acceptable.
    • It simply will not do to have dozens of children running around such a quiet event.
  6. To have (as an effect).
    • The fresh air did him some good.
  7. To fare, perform (well or poorly).
    • Our relationship isn't doing very well; how do you do?
    • 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...

    1. (especially England, intransitive) To fare well; to thrive; to prosper; (of livestock) to fatten.

      • A big framed beast takes a lot of food — expensive food at that [—] to keep it doing […] - 1908 September 21, “The fattening beast”, in Mark Lane Express Agricultural Journal, page 340:
      • That farm would go like a rick a-fire. It would do: it would go forward and prosper and make him his money. - 1971, George Ewart Evans, quoting ploughman Charles Last (born 1878), Tools of Their Trades: An Oral History...
  8. To have as one's job.
    • What does Bob do? — He's a plumber.
  9. To perform the tasks or actions associated with (something).
    • Don't forget to do your report!
  10. To cook.
    • I'll just do some eggs.
    • It seemed, from his account, that he was very good at doing scrambled eggs. - 1889, Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat […] :
    • 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. - 1944, “News from the Suburbs”, in Punch:

    Synonyms: cook do

  11. To travel in or through, to tour, to make a circuit of.
    • Let’s do New York also.
    • We 'did' London to our hearts' content,—thanks to Fred and Frank,—and were sorry to go away; […] - 1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, “Our Foreign Correspondent”, in Little Women: […], 2nd part, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers,...
    • After doing Paris and its suburbs, I started for London […] - 1892, James Batchelder, Multum in Parvo: Notes from the Life and Travels of James Batchelder, page 97:
  12. To treat in a certain way.
    • They did me well, I assure you—uncommon well: Bollinger of '84; green chartreuse fit for a prince; […] - 1894, Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume 87, page 59, column 1:
    • Upon my word, although he [my host] certainly did me uncommonly well, I began to feel I'd be more at ease among the bushmen. - 1928, Dorothy L[eigh] Sayers, “The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers”, in...
    • "Why you gonna do me like that?" I ask. "Do what?" "Dog me." - 1994, Jervey Tervalon, Understand This, →ISBN, page 50:

Forms

does doing did done no-table-tags glossary do doest dost didst doeth doth - de dee

Antonyms

don't

Derived

a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do are you doing anything tomorrow as you do bedo can-do can do can-do-ness can do this all day can do with can't do right for doing wrong could do could do with cute girls doing cute things doability do a bit of stiff doable do a Bradbury do a bunk do-acracy do a land-office business do-all do a lot of work do a Melba do a never