DIY
/ˌdi.aɪˈwaɪ/
DIY is the initialism of do it yourself.
Meaning of do it yourself
Noun
do it yourself (uncountable)
- The practice of doing home improvements and maintenance oneself, rather than employing a professional.
- THE LONDON & NORTH WESTERN RAILWAY. By O. S. Nock. Ian Allan. 30s.
[...] One scarcely imagined, for example, that the great steel works at Crewe owed its existence to Sir Richard Moon's penchant for the principle of "Do it yourself", a principle born of a methodical, economical and far-seeing mind.1960 October, “New reading on railways”, in Trains Illustrated, page 640
- THE LONDON & NORTH WESTERN RAILWAY. By O. S. Nock. Ian Allan. 30s.
- The habit or approach of doing something for oneself, rather than for example buying a prepared product.
- The relationship between punk's do-it-yourself philosophy and the music industry, along with fashion suppliers, […]2020, Matt Grimes, Mike Dines, Punk Now!!: Contemporary Perspectives on Punk
Verb
DIY (third-person singular simple present DIYs, present participle DIYing or DIY-ing, simple past and past participle DIYed)
- To perform oneself a task usually relegated to an expert.
- 2007 [publication date], Maggie Bullock, "Home Improvement", Elle, January 2008 ed., page 108,
Huber was a physicist. Even top Estée Lauder chemists who took over for Huber in 1995 found that... any attempt to cheat on his original formula produced disappointing results, which demands the question... - Ukrainian civilians have been DIY-ing hedgehogs, welding two bars or beams at an angle to make a cross and then adding a third to ensure it holds its shape even if it's knocked over.2022 March 21, Bill Chappell, “SWIFT, hedgehog, MiG: Here's a guide to the terms of war in Ukraine”, in SPECIAL SERIES: Ukraine invasion — explained, NPR, retrieved 21 Mar 2022
- 2007 [publication date], Maggie Bullock, "Home Improvement", Elle, January 2008 ed., page 108,
Adjective
DIY (comparative more DIY, superlative most DIY)
- Do-it-yourself.
- Do you know where I could find a DIY pipe repair kit?
- The product knowledge of salespeople is very high, which enables them to serve the demanding customer groups such as professional painters and builders, in addition to the usual DIY consumers.2008, Sami Finne, Hanna Sivonen, chapter 4, in The Retail Value Chain: How to Gain Competitive Advantage through Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) Strategies, page 154
Forms of DIY
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | DIYs |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | DIYs |
| present participle | DIYing |
| present participle | DIY-ing |
| past participle | DIYed |
| past | DIYed |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more DIY |
| superlative | most DIY |
Origin of DIY
Initialism of do it yourself.
Words formed from DIY
Phrases with DIY
Words that rhyme with DIY
Questions about DIY
- What does DIY mean?
- DIY means to perform oneself a task usually relegated to an expert.
- What is DIY the initialism of?
- DIY is the initialism of do it yourself.
- What part of speech is DIY?
- DIY can be a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce DIY?
- DIY is pronounced /ˌdi.aɪˈwaɪ/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of DIY?
- The past tense of DIY is DIYed.
Words near DIY in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: DIY (page history and authors); do it yourself (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-DIY.wav.
Cite this entry: “DIY.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/diy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.