Word.ws English Dictionary

did someone one better

did someone one better is the simple past of do someone one better.

Meaning of do someone one better

Verb

do someone one better (third-person singular simple present does someone one better, present participle doing someone one better, simple past did someone one better, past participle done someone one better)

  1. (colloquial, idiomatic) To do more than somebody asked for or expected.
    • - Could you drive me to the station please?
      - I'll do you one better and lend you my car keys: you can drive yourself anywhere.

Questions about did someone one better

What is did someone one better the simple past of?
Did someone one better is the simple past of do someone one better.

Words near did someone one better in the dictionary

  1. did right by
  2. did somebody wrong
  3. did someone a frighten
  4. did someone brown
  5. did someone like that
  6. did someone one better
  7. did someone proud
  8. did someone's bidding
  9. did someone's business
  10. did someone's head in
  11. did someone's heart good

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: did someone one better (page history and authors); do someone one better (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “did someone one better.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/did_someone_one_better. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.