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2 definitions found
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 :   [ gcide ]

  do \do\ (d[=oo]), v. t. or auxiliary. [imp. did (d[i^]d); p.
     p. done (d[u^]n); p. pr. & vb. n. Doing (d[=oo]"[i^]ng).
     This verb, when transitive, is formed in the indicative,
     present tense, thus: I do, thou doest (d[=oo]"[e^]st) or dost
     (d[u^]st), he does (d[u^]z), doeth (d[=oo]"[e^]th), or doth
     (d[u^]th); when auxiliary, the second person is, thou dost.
     As an independent verb, dost is obsolete or rare, except in
     poetry. ``What dost thou in this world?'' --Milton. The form
     doeth is a verb unlimited, doth, formerly so used, now being
     the auxiliary form. The second pers, sing., imperfect tense,
     is didst (d[i^]dst), formerly didest (d[i^]d"[e^]st).] [AS.
     d[=o]n; akin to D. doen, OS. duan, OHG. tuon, G. thun, Lith.
     deti, OSlav. d[=e]ti, OIr. d['e]nim I do, Gr. tiqe`nai to
     put, Skr. dh[=a], and to E. suffix -dom, and prob. to L.
     facere to do, E. fact, and perh. to L. -dere in some
     compounds, as addere to add, credere to trust. [root]65. Cf.
     Deed, Deem, Doom, Fact, Creed, Theme.]
     1. To place; to put. [Obs.] --Tale of a Usurer (about 1330).
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. To cause; to make; -- with an infinitive. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              My lord Abbot of Westminster did do shewe to me late
              certain evidences.                    --W. Caxton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              I shall . . . your cloister do make.  --Piers
                                                    Plowman.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              A fatal plague which many did to die. --Spenser.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              We do you to wit [i. e., We make you to know] of the
              grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia.
                                                    --2 Cor. viii.
                                                    1.
  
     Note: We have lost the idiom shown by the citations (do used
           like the French faire or laisser), in which the verb in
           the infinitive apparently, but not really, has a
           passive signification, i. e., cause . . . to be made.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     3. To bring about; to produce, as an effect or result; to
        effect; to achieve.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The neglecting it may do much danger. --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              He waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither
              good not harm.                        --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. To perform, as an action; to execute; to transact to carry
        out in action; as, to do a good or a bad act; do our duty;
        to do what I can.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. --Ex.
                                                    xx. 9.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              We did not do these things.           --Ld. Lytton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              You can not do wrong without suffering wrong.
                                                    --Emerson.
        Hence: To do homage, honor, favor, justice, etc., to
        render homage, honor, etc.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. To bring to an end by action; to perform completely; to
        finish; to accomplish; -- a sense conveyed by the
        construction, which is that of the past participle done.
        ``Ere summer half be done.'' ``I have done weeping.''
        --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     6. To make ready for an object, purpose, or use, as food by
        cooking; to cook completely or sufficiently; as, the meat
        is done on one side only.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     7. To put or bring into a form, state, or condition,
        especially in the phrases, to do death, to put to death;
        to slay; to do away (often do away with), to put away; to
        remove; to do on, to put on; to don; to do off, to take
        off, as dress; to doff; to do into, to put into the form
        of; to translate or transform into, as a text.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Done to death by slanderous tongues.  -- Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The ground of the difficulty is done away. -- Paley.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Suspicions regarding his loyalty were entirely done
              away.                                 --Thackeray.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              To do on our own harness, that we may not; but we
              must do on the armor of God.          -- Latimer.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Then Jason rose and did on him a fair
              Blue woolen tunic.                    -- W. Morris
                                                    (Jason).
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Though the former legal pollution be now done off,
              yet there is a spiritual contagion in idolatry as
              much to be shunned.                   --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              It [``Pilgrim's Progress''] has been done into
              verse: it has been done into modern English. --
                                                    Macaulay.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     8. To cheat; to gull; to overreach. [Colloq.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              He was not be done, at his time of life, by
              frivolous offers of a compromise that might have
              secured him seventy-five per cent.    -- De Quincey.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     9. To see or inspect; to explore; as, to do all the points of
        interest. [Colloq.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
     10. (Stock Exchange) To cash or to advance money for, as a
         bill or note.
         [1913 Webster]
  
     11. To perform work upon, about, for, or at, by way of caring
         for, looking after, preparing, cleaning, keeping in
         order, or the like.
  
               The sergeants seem to do themselves pretty well.
                                                    --Harper's
                                                    Mag.
         [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  
     12. To deal with for good and all; to finish up; to undo; to
         ruin; to do for. [Colloq. or Slang]
  
               Sometimes they lie in wait in these dark streets,
               and fracture his skull, . . . or break his arm, or
               cut the sinew of his wrist; and that they call
               doing him.                           --Charles
                                                    Reade.
         [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  
     Note:
         (a) Do and did are much employed as auxiliaries, the verb
             to which they are joined being an infinitive. As an
             auxiliary the verb do has no participle. ``I do set
             my bow in the cloud.'' --Gen. ix. 13. [Now archaic or
             rare except for emphatic assertion.]
             [1913 Webster]
  
                   Rarely . . . did the wrongs of individuals to
                   the knowledge of the public.     -- Macaulay.
         (b) They are often used in emphatic construction. ``You
             don't say so, Mr. Jobson. -- but I do say so.'' --Sir
             W. Scott. ``I did love him, but scorn him now.''
             --Latham.
         (c) In negative and interrogative constructions, do and
             did are in common use. I do not wish to see them;
             what do you think? Did C[ae]sar cross the Tiber? He
             did not. ``Do you love me?'' --Shak.
         (d) Do, as an auxiliary, is supposed to have been first
             used before imperatives. It expresses entreaty or
             earnest request; as, do help me. In the imperative
             mood, but not in the indicative, it may be used with
             the verb to be; as, do be quiet. Do, did, and done
             often stand as a general substitute or representative
             verb, and thus save the repetition of the principal
             verb. ``To live and die is all we have to do.''
             --Denham. In the case of do and did as auxiliaries,
             the sense may be completed by the infinitive (without
             to) of the verb represented. ``When beauty lived and
             died as flowers do now.'' --Shak. ``I . . . chose my
             wife as she did her wedding gown.'' --Goldsmith.
             [1913 Webster]
  
                   My brightest hopes giving dark fears a being.
                   As the light does the shadow.    -- Longfellow.
             In unemphatic affirmative sentences do is, for the
             most part, archaic or poetical; as, ``This just
             reproach their virtue does excite.'' --Dryden.
             [1913 Webster]
  
     To do one's best, To do one's diligence (and the like),
        to exert one's self; to put forth one's best or most or
        most diligent efforts. ``We will . . . do our best to gain
        their assent.'' --Jowett (Thucyd.).
  
     To do one's business, to ruin one. [Colloq.] --Wycherley.
  
     To do one shame, to cause one shame. [Obs.]
  
     To do over.
         (a) To make over; to perform a second time.
         (b) To cover; to spread; to smear. ``Boats . . . sewed
             together and done over with a kind of slimy stuff
             like rosin.'' --De Foe.
  
     To do to death, to put to death. (See 7.) [Obs.]
  
     To do up.
         (a) To put up; to raise. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
         (b) To pack together and envelop; to pack up.
         (c) To accomplish thoroughly. [Colloq.]
         (d) To starch and iron. ``A rich gown of velvet, and a
             ruff done up with the famous yellow starch.''
             --Hawthorne.
  
     To do way, to put away; to lay aside. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
  
     To do with, to dispose of; to make use of; to employ; --
        usually preceded by what. ``Men are many times brought to
        that extremity, that were it not for God they would not
        know what to do with themselves.'' --Tillotson.
  
     To have to do with, to have concern, business or
        intercourse with; to deal with. When preceded by what, the
        notion is usually implied that the affair does not concern
        the person denoted by the subject of have. ``Philology has
        to do with language in its fullest sense.'' --Earle.
        ``What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? --2 Sam.
        xvi. 10.
        [1913 Webster]

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) :   [ web1913 ]

  
  
     6. To make ready for an object, purpose, or use, as food by
        cooking; to cook completely or sufficiently; as, the meat
        is done on one side only.
  
     7. To put or bring into a form, state, or condition,
        especially in the phrases, to do death, to put to death;
        to slay; to do away (often do away with), to put away; to
        remove; to do on, to put on; to don; to do off, to take
        off, as dress; to doff; to do into, to put into the form
        of; to translate or transform into, as a text.
  
              Done to death by slanderous tongues.  -- Shak.
  
              The ground of the difficulty is done away. -- Paley.
  
              Suspicions regarding his loyalty were entirely done
              away.                                 --Thackeray.
  
              To do on our own harness, that we may not; but we
              must do on the armor of God.          -- Latimer.
  
              Then Jason rose and did on him a fair Blue woolen
              tunic.                                -- W. Morris
                                                    (Jason).
  
              Though the former legal pollution be now done off,
              yet there is a spiritual contagion in idolatry as
              much to be shunned.                   --Milton.
  
              It [``Pilgrim's Progress''] has been done into
              verse: it has been done into modern English. --
                                                    Macaulay.
  
     8. To cheat; to gull; to overreach. [Colloq.]
  
              He was not be done, at his time of life, by
              frivolous offers of a compromise that might have
              secured him seventy-five per cent.    -- De Quincey.
  
     9. To see or inspect; to explore; as, to do all the points of
        interest. [Colloq.]
  
     10. (Stock Exchange) To cash or to advance money for, as a
         bill or note.
  
     Note:
         (a) Do and did are much employed as auxiliaries, the verb
             to which they are joined being an infinitive. As an
             auxiliary the verb do has no participle. ``I do set
             my bow in the cloud.'' --Gen. ix. 13. [Now archaic or
             rare except for emphatic assertion.]
  
                   Rarely . . . did the wrongs of individuals to
                   the knowledge of the public.     -- Macaulay.
         (b) They are often used in emphatic construction. ``You
             don't say so, Mr. Jobson. -- but I do say so.'' --Sir
             W. Scott. ``I did love him, but scorn him now.''
             --Latham.
         (c) In negative and interrogative constructions, do and
             did are in common use. I do not wish to see them;
             what do you think? Did C[ae]sar cross the Tiber? He
             did not. ``Do you love me?'' --Shak.
         (d) Do, as an auxiliary, is supposed to have been first
             used before imperatives. It expresses entreaty or
             earnest request; as, do help me. In the imperative
             mood, but not in the indicative, it may be used with
             the verb to be; as, do be quiet. Do, did, and done
             often stand as a general substitute or representative
             verb, and thus save the repetition of the principal
             verb. ``To live and die is all we have to do.''
             --Denham. In the case of do and did as auxiliaries,
             the sense may be completed by the infinitive (without
             to) of the verb represented. ``When beauty lived and
             died as flowers do now.'' --Shak. ``I . . . chose my
             wife as she did her wedding gown.'' --Goldsmith.
  
                   My brightest hopes giving dark fears a being.
                   As the light does the shadow.    -- Longfellow.
             In unemphatic affirmative sentences do is, for the
             most part, archaic or poetical; as, ``This just
             reproach their virtue does excite.'' --Dryden.
  
     To do one's best, To do one's diligence (and the like),
        to exert one's self; to put forth one's best or most or
        most diligent efforts. ``We will . . . do our best to gain
        their assent.'' --Jowett (Thucyd.).
  
     To do one's business, to ruin one. [Colloq.] --Wycherley.
  
     To do one shame, to cause one shame. [Obs.]
  
     To do over.
         (a) To make over; to perform a second time.
         (b) To cover; to spread; to smear. ``Boats . . . sewed
             together and done over with a kind of slimy stuff
             like rosin.'' --De Foe.
  
     To do to death, to put to death. (See 7.) [Obs.]
  
     To do up.
         (a) To put up; to raise. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
         (b) To pack together and envelop; to pack up.
         (c) To accomplish thoroughly. [Colloq.]
         (d) To starch and iron. ``A rich gown of velvet, and a
             ruff done up with the famous yellow starch.''
             --Hawthorne.
  
     To do way, to put away; to lay aside. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
  
     To do with, to dispose of; to make use of; to employ; --
        usually preceded by what. ``Men are many times brought to
        that extremity, that were it not for God they would not
        know what to do with themselves.'' --Tillotson.
  
     To have to do with, to have concern, business or
        intercourse with; to deal with. When preceded by what, the
        notion is usually implied that the affair does not concern
        the person denoted by the subject of have. ``Philology has
        to do with language in its fullest sense.'' --Earle.
        ``What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? --2 Sam.
        xvi. 10.

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