do away with
verbEtymology
Very likely a continuation of Old English onweġ dōn (“to get rid of”, literally “to do away”, from onweġ (“away”) and dōn (“to do”, also “to make, cause, put”)), via a Middle English *awey don, *oway don, *don awey, and other forms. The preposition with was probably also already in use from the outset, given how its original meaning is “against” (still seen in e.g. argue with, withstand and have a fight with). The original meaning of the phrase was therefore on the lines of “to put away against (someone or something)” or “to make/cause (s.o./sth. to go) away”, which are long-obsolete senses of do.
- She tried to do away with the argument by changing the topic.
- The criminals tried to do away with the evidence before the police arrived.
4 more examples
- She’s working hard to do away with negative thinking.
- For no nearness in space, no closeness of relations, no daily intimacy, can do away with the inexorable laws which give the adept his seclusion.1887, Mabel Collins, The Illuminated Way: A Guide to Newophytes, 1903 ed., Yogi publications, New Jersey, p. 35
- Using electricity as motive power for railroads will do away with fuel trains, tenders, coal handling, water, and all that.1922, Victor Appleton, chapter 7, in Tom Swift And His Electric Locomotive:
- Centralised traffic control does away with intermediate operators over long stretches of line.1950 May, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 300:
2
Euphemistic, Idiomatic, Informal To have someone killed.
- He plotted to do away with his rival.
- […]unless we can begin to understand that the vast majority of those who do away with themselves—and of those who attempt to do so—do not do it because of any frailty, and rarely out of impulse, but because they are in the grip of an illness that causes almost unimaginable pain.1988 December 19, William Styron, “Why Primo Levi Need Not Have Died”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- Related terms
- get rid of, fordo