Word.ws English Dictionary

doing the right thing

doing the right thing is the present participle and gerund of do the right thing.

Meaning of do the right thing

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, set phrase) To do what is ethical or just.
    • There was a lot of money in the wallet I found, but I did the right thing and handed it in.

Questions about doing the right thing

What is doing the right thing the present participle and gerund of?
Doing the right thing is the present participle and gerund of do the right thing.

Words near doing the right thing in the dictionary

  1. doing the math
  2. doing the nasties
  3. doing the nasty
  4. doing the needful
  5. doing the power of good
  6. doing the right thing
  7. doing the rounds
  8. doing the talking
  9. doing the trick
  10. doing the washing up
  11. doing the washing-up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: doing the right thing (page history and authors); do the right thing (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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Cite this entry: “doing the right thing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/doing_the_right_thing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.