Word.ws English Dictionary

do someone one better

do someone one better verb: to do more than somebody asked for or expected.

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.

Forms of do someone one better

third-person singular presentdoes someone one better
present participledoing someone one better
pastdid someone one better
past participledone someone one better

Questions about do someone one better

What does do someone one better mean?
Do someone one better means to do more than somebody asked for or expected.
What part of speech is do someone one better?
Do someone one better is a verb.
What is the past tense of do someone one better?
The past tense of do someone one better is did someone one better.

Words near do someone one better in the dictionary

  1. do someone a frighten
  2. do someone brown
  3. do someone dirt
  4. do someone dirty
  5. do someone like that
  6. do someone one better
  7. do someone proud
  8. do someone's bidding
  9. do someone's business
  10. do someone's dags
  11. do someone's head in

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 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: “do someone one better.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/do_someone_one_better. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.