Word.ws English Dictionary

could have done with

could have done with is the simple past of could do with.

could have done with is the simple past of can do with.

Meaning of could do with

Verb

could do with (past participle could have done with)

  1. To need something that would be beneficial.
    • I could do with a torch, if you've got one.

Meaning of can do with

Verb

can do with (third-person singular simple present can do with, no present participle, simple past could do with, no past participle)

  1. (no-past-participle, no-present-participle, transitive, usually) To need; to want; to be in a position to benefit from.
    • His hair was thinning and slicked back, and he could have done with a good shave.1996 March, D. William Shunn, “Celestial Mechanics.”, in Fantasy & Science Fiction, volume 90, number 3, page 109

Questions about could have done with

What is could have done with the simple past of?
Could have done with is the simple past of could do with.

Words near could have done with in the dictionary

  1. could eat the crotch out of a low flying duck
  2. could eat the crutch from a low flying duck
  3. could fit on the back of a postage stamp
  4. could go all day
  5. could have cared less
  6. could have done with
  7. could have fooled me
  8. could have sworn
  9. could have, would have, should have
  10. could hear a pin drop
  11. could I get the bill

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: could have done with (page history and authors); could do with (page history and authors); can do with (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “could have done with.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/could_have_done_with. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.