Word.ws English Dictionary

did well by doing good

did well by doing good is the simple past of do well by doing good.

Meaning of do well by doing good

Verb

do well by doing good (third-person singular simple present does well by doing good, present participle doing well by doing good, simple past did well by doing good, past participle done well by doing good)

  1. (idiomatic) To achieve social acceptance or financial success as a result of behaving in a benevolent or charitable manner.
    • Ev'ry evening you will find him / Around our neighborhood / It's the old dope peddler / Doing well by doing good1954, Tom Lehrer, “The Old Dope Peddler”, in Songs by Tom Lehrer (LP record), Lehrer Records, Track 2

Questions about did well by doing good

What is did well by doing good the simple past of?
Did well by doing good is the simple past of do well by doing good.

Words near did well by doing good in the dictionary

  1. did tricks on it
  2. did unto others
  3. did up
  4. did violence to
  5. did well
  6. did well by doing good
  7. did well for oneself
  8. did with mirrors
  9. did without
  10. did wonders
  11. did'nt

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: did well by doing good (page history and authors); do well by doing good (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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