verb, num, noun — 53 senses
/də/ · /dʊ/
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, English feast, festival, fair (“celebration”), via Greek, English theo-, theme, thesis, and Sanskrit दधाति (dadhāti, “to put”), धातृ (dhātṛ, “creator”) and धातु (dhātu, “layer, element, root”).
› A syntactic marker.
A syntactic marker in a question whose main verb is not another auxiliary verb or be.
A syntactic marker in negations with the indicative and imperative moods.
A syntactic marker for emphasis with the indicative, imperative, and subjunctive moods.
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.
Informal, Interrogative, Modal Should; ought to (especially in respect of a task to be repeated).
Dialectal Used to form the present progressive of verbs.
To perform; to execute.
Obsolete To cause or make (someone) (do something).
Ambitransitive To suffice.
To be reasonable or acceptable.
To have (as an effect).
To fare, perform (well or poorly).
England, Especially To fare well; to thrive; to prosper; (of livestock) to fatten.
In questions To have as one's job.
To perform the tasks or actions associated with (something).
To cook.
To travel in or through, to tour, to make a circuit of.
To treat in a certain way.
To work for or on, by way of caring for, looking after, preparing, cleaning, keeping in order, etc.
Obsolete To act or behave in a certain manner; to conduct oneself.
To spend (time) in jail. (See also do time)
To impersonate or depict.
Place, Usually To copy or emulate the actions or behaviour that is associated with the person or thing mentioned.
With 'a' and the name of a person
Slang To kill.
Slang To deal with for good and all; to finish up; to undo; to ruin; to do for.
Informal To punish for a misdemeanor.
Slang To have sex with. (See also do it)
To cheat or swindle.
To convert into a certain form; especially, to translate.
Ambitransitive To finish.
Informal To make or provide.
Informal To provide as a service.
Informal To injure (one's own body part).
To take (a drug).
To exist with a purpose or for a reason.
In the form be doing [somewhere]
Informal To drive a vehicle at a certain speed, especially in regard to a speed limit.
Adjective, Verb, Used with nouns To perform something suggested by a following noun, verb, or adjective.
UK /dəʊ/ · US /doʊ/
Etymology Shortening of dozen.
The cardinal number occurring after el and before do one in a duodecimal system. Written 10, decimal value 12.
Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences Abbreviation, Initialism Initialism of direct object.
US a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine
Sciences Abbreviation, Initialism Initialism of dissolved oxygen.
Hong Kong, Abbreviation, Initialism Initialism of district officer.
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, English feast, festival, fair (“celebration”), via Greek, English theo-, theme, thesis, and Sanskrit दधाति (dadhāti, “to put”), धातृ (dhātṛ, “creator”) and धातु (dhātu, “layer, element, root”).
Something that can or should be done.
Chiefly fossilized
Obsolete Something that has been done.
Fossilized in the UK
Archaic Ado; bustle; stir; to-do; A period of confusion or argument.
Etymology 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.
Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music A syllable used in solfège to represent the first and eighth tonic of a major scale.
Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — authors: page histories for do and DO.