do up meaning: definition, quotations

do up

verb

8 senses

Idiomatic To fasten (a piece of clothing, etc.); to tighten (a nut etc.)

1 more example

Colloquial, Idiomatic To redecorate (a room, etc.); to make improvements to (a home or domestic property).

3 more examples

They've done up the house so that they can sell it more easily.
If I had been asked what was the rent of the house, I should have said, at the most, not more than twenty pounds, — because, between you and me, it wants a good bit of doing up, and is hardly fit to live in as it stands.1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:
So many people were doing up their apartments that supplies of high-grade fixtures and fittings were at a premium.2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 3:

Idiomatic, Informal To execute a task or performance; to execute it well.

This time I'm going to do it up right.
Previously they had cut corners on the dinner menu, but this time they really did it up.

Idiomatic To pack together and envelop; to pack up, tie up, or both.

Dated To accomplish thoroughly.

Archaic To starch and iron.

a rich gown of velvet, and a ruff done up with the famous yellow starch1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 20, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:

Slang To beat up; to physically assault.

To style (someone's hair); (especially) to give someone (i.e., oneself or another) an updo.