Word.ws English Dictionary

do

/də/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

colloquial/d͡ʒ/

do verb: a syntactic marker in a question whose main verb is not another auxiliary verb or be. Also the clipping of hairdo.

Verb

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

  1. (auxiliary) A syntactic marker in a question whose main verb is not another auxiliary verb or be.
    • Do you go there often?
  2. (auxiliary) A syntactic marker in negations with the indicative and imperative moods.
    • I do not go there often.
    • Do not listen to him.
  3. (auxiliary) A syntactic marker for emphasis with the indicative, imperative, and subjunctive moods.
    • But I do go sometimes.
    • Do tell us.
  4. (auxiliary, 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)
  5. (auxiliary, informal, interrogative, modal) 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. (auxiliary, 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
  7. (transitive) 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?
  8. (obsolete, transitive) 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 Society, 1890, page 2
    • 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] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 7, page 258
  9. (ambitransitive) 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.
  10. (intransitive) To be reasonable or acceptable.
    • It simply will not do to have dozens of children running around such a quiet event.
    • At last you spot a tempura stand. Not quite what you had in mind, but it'll do.2009, Tim Thornton, The Alternative Hero, Random House, →ISBN, page 4
  11. (ditransitive) To have (as an effect).
    • The fresh air did him some good.
  12. (intransitive) 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 trick are already familiar to experts in the field.2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
    1. (England, especially, 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 of Men at Work c. 1900, Taplinger Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 68
Show 25 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (transitive) To have as one's job.
    • What does Bob do? — He's a plumber.
    • "What did you do in the States?" I asked him. "National Security Agency."1989 May, Priit J. Vesilind, “The Baltic: Arena of Power”, in National Geographic, volume 175, number 5, page 604
  2. (transitive) To perform the tasks or actions associated with (something).
    • Don't forget to do your report!
  3. (transitive) 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 […]
    Synonyms:
    cook
  4. (transitive) 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, →OCLC, page 115
  5. (transitive) 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 Lord Peter Views the Body
  6. (transitive) To work for or on, by way of caring for, looking after, preparing, cleaning, keeping in order, etc.
    • The woman-who-did did not do very well, Juliet thought.2018, Kate Atkinson, Transcription, →ISBN, page 291
  7. (intransitive, obsolete) To act or behave in a certain manner; to conduct oneself.
    • Vnto this day they doe after the former manners: they feare not the Lord, neither doe they after their Statutes, or after their Ordinances, or after the Law and Commaundement which the Lord commaunded the children of Iacob, whom hee named Iſrael,[…]1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Kings 17:34, column 2
  8. (transitive) To spend (time) in jail. (See also do time)
    • I did five years for armed robbery.
    Synonyms:
    serve
  9. (transitive) To impersonate or depict.
    • They really laughed when he did Clinton, with a perfect accent and a leer.
  10. (place, transitive, usually, event) To copy or emulate the actions or behaviour that is associated with the person or thing mentioned.
    • He did a Henry VIII and got married six times.
    • He was planning to do a 9/11.
  11. (slang, transitive) To kill.
    • Case pulled the .22 out of his pocket and levelled it at Wage's crotch. “I hear you wanna do me.”1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 22
    • About a year ago, a boy name Brandon got got here in Baltimore. Stuck and burned before he passed. […] Wasn't no need for y'all to do him the way y'all did.2003 August 17, George Pelecanos, “Bad Dreams” (43:27 from the start), in The Wire, season 2, episode 11 (television production), spoken by Omar Little (Michael K. Williams), via HBO
    Synonyms:
    do in, murder, off, rub out, annihilate, bag, baptize, bereave of life, blight, bring down
  12. (slang, transitive) To deal with for good and all; to finish up; to undo; to ruin; to do for.
    • Sometimes they lie in wait in these dark streets, and fracture his skull, […] or break his arm, or cut the sinew of his wrist; and that they call doing him.1870, Charles Reade, Put Yourself in His Place
  13. (informal, transitive) To punish for a misdemeanor.
    • He got done for speeding.
    • Teacher'll do you for that!
  14. (slang, transitive) To have sex with. (See also do it)
    • Deme[trius]. Villaine vvhat haſt thou done? / A[aron]. That vvhich thou canſt not vndoe. / Chiron. Thou haſt vndone our mother. / Aron. Villaine I haue done thy mother.c. 1588–1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas...
    • […] one day I did her on the kitchen table, and several times on the dining-room table.1996, James Russell Kincaid, My Secret Life, page 81
    1. (reflexive, slang, transitive) To masturbate.
      • I got horny from his nudes and ended up doing myself to them.
  15. (transitive) To cheat or swindle.
    • That guy just did me out of two hundred bucks!
    • He was not to be done, at his time of life, by frivolous offers of a compromise that might have secured him seventy-five per cent.1852, Thomas De Quincey, Sir William Hamilton
  16. (transitive) To convert into a certain form; especially, to translate.
    • the novel has just been done into English; I'm going to do this play into a movie
  17. (ambitransitive) To finish.
  18. (transitive) To cash or to advance money for, as a bill or note.
  19. (ditransitive, informal) To make or provide.
    • Could you do me a burger with mayonnaise instead of ketchup?
  20. (informal, transitive) To provide as a service.
    • Do they do haircuts there?
  21. (informal, transitive) To injure (one's own body part).
    • "Defender Kolo Toure admitted Given will be a loss, but gave his backing to Nielsen. 'I think he's done his shoulder,' said the Ivorian."2010 April 24, “Given stretchered off with suspected broken shoulder”, in The Irish Times, retrieved 21 Jul 2015
    • "Watto will spend the entire winter stretching and doing Pilates, and do a hamstring after bending down to pick up his petrol cap after dropping it filling his car at Caltex Cronulla."2014 April 14, Matt Cleary, “What do Australia's cricketers do on holiday?”, in ESPNcricinfo, retrieved 21 Jul 2015
  22. (transitive) To take (a drug).
    • I do cocaine.
  23. (transitive) To exist with a purpose or for a reason.
    • What's that car doing in our swimming pool?
  24. (informal, transitive) To drive a vehicle at a certain speed, especially in regard to a speed limit.
    • He was doing 50 [miles per hour] in a school zone.
  25. (adjective, verb) To perform something suggested by a following noun, verb, or adjective.
    • did a listen do someone a frighten doing her a cute
    • Is your significant other doing you a heckin distress?2017 August 9, Tasnim Odrika, “How to deal with trust issues in a relationship”, in The Daily Star, Dhaka, →OCLC, archived from the original on 13 Aug 2017

Noun (1)

do (plural dos or do's or (uncommon) doos)

  1. (UK, informal) 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 her1980, Jona Lewie, Keef Trouble, “You'll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties”, performed by Jona Lewie
  2. (chiefly fossilized) 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
  3. (obsolete, fossilized in the UK) Something that has been done.
    • "How come you quit?" "I'm moving to London." "Fair dos."
  4. (archaic) 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
  5. (UK, obsolete, slang) A cheat; a swindler.
  6. (UK, obsolete, slang) An act of swindling; a fraud or deception.
  7. (UK, slang) 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 start), in (Zone 2) Karma × Trizzac (lyrics), Demented

Noun (2)

UK/dəʊ/US/doʊ/

do (plural dos)

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

Numeral

UK/dəʊ/US/doʊ/

do

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

Noun (3) capitalized: DO

DO (countable and uncountable, plural DOs)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of direct object.
  2. (US) a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine
  3. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of dissolved oxygen.
  4. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of disto-occlusal.
  5. (Hong-Kong, abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of district officer.

Also used as

do is also the clipping of hairdo.

do is also the abbreviation of ditto.

do meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

do in Hindi

in questions
क्या kyā
slang: have sex with
चोदना codnā
perform, execute
करना karnā

do in Tamil

in questions
தானே tāṉē
fare
இரு iru
slang: have sex with
செய் cey
take drugs
எடு eṭu

do in Marathi

perform, execute
करणे karṇe

do in Urdu

in questions
کْیا kyā
perform, execute
کَرْنا karnā
More languagesFewer languages
do in Bengali
লাগানো laganō, চোদা cōda, করা kora
do in Telugu
చేయు cēyu
do in Malayalam
ചെയ്യുക ceyyuka
do in Kannada
ಮಾಡು māḍu
do in Punjabi
ਕਰਨਾ karnā
do in Gujarati
કરવું karvũ
do in Odia
କରିବା karibā
do in Sanskrit
करोति karóti
do in Sinhala
කරනවා karanawā
do in Assamese
কৰ kor
do in Nepali
गर्नु garnu
do in Pashto
کول kawël
do in Tagalog
ba, hindi, huwag, gawin
do in Arabic
هَل hal, أَ ʔa, فَعَلَ faʕala, عَمِلَ ʕamila
do in Malay
buat
do in Indonesian
buat, laku, melakukan
do in Thai
ไหม mǎi, ทำ tam, โด doo
do in Vietnamese
làm, được, đô, đồ
do in Myanmar
လုပ် lup, ပြု pru.
Sindhi
يَهَڻُ yahaṇu, ڪَرَڻُ karaṇu
Kashmiri
کَرُن karun

Examples of do in a sentence

  • That's not true: I always do say please and thank-you.
  • They don't think it be like it is, but it do.
  • I love doing puzzles, especially crosswords, but lately I've taken to sudokus too.
  • “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.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company...
  • “I don't know how you and the ‘head,’ as you call him, will get on, but I do know that if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there'll be trouble.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
  • "Do stop it," said Susan; "it won't make things any better having a row between you two.1950, C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe:

All 40 example sentences with do

Synonyms of do

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of do

Forms of do

Verb
third-person singular presentdoes
present participledoing
pastdid
past participledone
alternative Northumbriade
alternative Northumbriadee
second-person singular present (archaic)doest
second-person singular present (archaic)dost
second-person singular past (archaic)didst
third-person singular present (archaic)doeth
third-person singular present (archaic)doth
Noun
pluraldos
pluraldo's
plural uncommondoos
alternative formdoh
alternative formDo

Past tense of do: did

Plural of do: dos

Origin of do

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 meaning seems to be imperfective. In Early Modern English, any meaning in such contexts was lost, making it a dummy auxiliary, and soon thereafter its use became mandatory in most questions and negations. Doublets include deed, deem, and -dom, but not deal. Other cognates include, via Latin...

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.

Short for ditto.

Words formed from do

Phrases with do

150 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with do

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about do

What does do mean?
Do means a syntactic marker in a question whose main verb is not another auxiliary verb or be.
What is do in Hindi?
Do in Hindi is क्या (kyā), चोदना (codnā), करना (karnā). See Do meaning in Hindi.
How do you use do in a sentence?
That's not true: I always do say please and thank-you.
What part of speech is do?
Do can be a verb, a noun or a numeral.
How do you pronounce do?
Do is pronounced /də/.
What is the past tense of do?
The past tense of do is did.

Words near do in the dictionary

  1. DNW
  2. DNWed
  3. DNWing
  4. DNWs
  5. DNZ
  6. do
  7. do a bit of stiff
  8. do a Bradbury
  9. do a bunk
  10. do a flit
  11. do a land-office business

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: do (page history and authors); DO (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: en-us-do (unstressed).ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-do.wav, en-au-do.ogg.

Cite this entry: “do.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/do. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.