Verb

To provide assistance to (someone or something).

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=76, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Snakes and ladders , passage=Risk is everywhere.

To contribute in some way to.

To provide assistance.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=19 citation , passage=As soon as Julia returned with a constable, Timothy, who was on the point of exhaustion, prepared to give over to him gratefully. The newcomer turned out to be a powerful youngster, fully trained and eager to help , and he stripped off his tunic at once.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=72-3, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= A punch in the gut , passage=Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.}}

To avoid; to prevent; to refrain from; to restrain (oneself). Usually used in nonassertive contexts with can .

Verb

(auxiliary)

(auxiliary)

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=“Well,” I answered, at first with uncertainty, then with inspiration, “he would do splendidly to lead your cotillon, if you think of having one.” ¶ “So you do not dance, Mr. Crocker?” ¶ I was somewhat set back by her perspicuity.}}

(auxiliary)

* , chapter=7

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=“I don't know how you and the ‘head,’ as you call him, will get on, but I do know that if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there'll be trouble. It's bad enough to go around togged out like a life saver on a drill day, but I can stand that 'cause I'm paid for it. […]”}}

(auxiliary)

To perform; to execute.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)

, volume=189, issue=2, page=48, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= The tao of tech , passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing ",

(obsolete) To cause, make (someone) (do something).

* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), ''(The Faerie Queene), II.vi:

Sometimes to doe him laugh, she would assay / To laugh at shaking of the leaues light, / Or to behold the water worke

* W. Caxton

My lord Abbot of Westminster did do shewe to me late certain evidences.

* Spenser

a fatal plague which many did to die

* Bible, 2 Cor. viii. 1

We do you to wit [i.e. we make you to know] of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia.

(transitive) To suffice.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=“Well,” I answered, at first with uncertainty, then with inspiration, “he would do splendidly to lead your cotillon, if you think of having one.” ¶ “So you do not dance, Mr. Crocker?” ¶ I was somewhat set back by her perspicuity.}}

* 1922 , (Margery Williams), (The Velveteen Rabbit)

"Here," she said, "take your old Bunny! He'll do to sleep with you!" And she dragged the Rabbit out by one ear, and put him into the Boy's arms.

To be reasonable or acceptable.

To have (as an effect).

To fare; to succeed or fail.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.}}

(chiefly in questions) To have as one's job.

To cook.

* , Three Men In a Boat

, passage=It seemed, from his account, that he was very good at doing scrambled eggs.}}

* {{quote-news, 1944, , , News from the Suburbs, Punch citation

, passage=We went down below, and the galley-slave did some ham and eggs, and the first lieutenant, who was aged 19, told me about Sicily, and time went like a flash.}}

* {{quote-book, 2005, Alan Tansley, The Grease Monkey, page=99, pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=V63jCdQpv2kC&pg=PA99

, passage=Next morning, they woke about ten o'clock, Kev, went for a shower while Alice, did some toast, put the kettle on, and when he came out, she went in.}}

To travel in, to tour, to make a circuit of.

* {{quote-book, 1869, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, edition=1957 ed., page=, pageurl=

, passage=We 'did ' London to our heart's content, thanks to Fred and Frank, and were sorry to go away,

* {{quote-book, 1892, James Batchelder, Multum in Parvo: Notes from the Life and Travels of James Batchelder, page=97 citation

, passage=After doing Paris and its suburbs, I started for London

* {{quote-news, 1968, July 22, Ralph Schoenstein, Nice Place to Visit, New York Magazine citation

, passage=No tourist can get credit for seeing America first without doing New York, the Wonderful Town, the Baghdad-on-Hudson, the dream in the eye of the Kansas hooker

To treat in a certain way.

* {{quote-news, 1894, , , , Harper's citation

, passage=They did me well, I assure you — uncommon well: Bellinger of '84; green chartreuse fit for a prince;

* 1928 , , "The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers", in (Lord Peter Views the Body) ,

Upon my word, although he [my host] certainly did me uncommonly well, I began to feel I'd be more at ease among the bushmen.

* {{quote-book, 1994, Jervey Tervalon, Understand This, page=50 citation

, passage="Why you gonna do me like that?" I ask. "Do what?" "Dog me."}}

To act or behave in a certain manner; to conduct oneself.

* Bible, 2 Kings xvii. 34

They fear not the Lord, neither do they after the law and commandment.

To spend (time) in jail.

To impersonate or depict.

(slang) To kill.

* '>citation

* {{quote-book, 2007, E.J. Churchill, page=153, pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=ytW6LcwIrXQC&pg=PA153, The Lazarus Code

, passage=The order came and I did him right there. The bullet went right where it was supposed to go.}}

(slang) To have sex with. (See also do it )

* {{quote-book, c. 1590, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, section=Act IV, scene II, pageurl=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Tragedy_of_Titus_Andronicus

, passage=Demetrius'': "Villain, what hast thou done?"
''Aaron'': "That which thou canst not undo."
''Chiron'': "Thou hast undone our mother."
''Aaron : "Villain, I have done thy mother."}}

* {{quote-book, 1996, James Russell Kincaid, My Secret Life, page=81, pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=q2cQiUtWftwC&pg=PA82

, passage=

* {{quote-book, 2008, On the Line, Donna Hill, page=84 citation

, passage=The uninhibited woman within wanted to do him right there on the countertop, but I remained composed.}}

To cheat or swindle.

* De Quincey

He was not to be done , at his time of life, by frivolous offers of a compromise that might have secured him seventy-five per cent.

To convert into a certain form; especially, to translate.

(intransitive) To finish.

(UK, dated, intransitive) To work as a domestic servant (with for ).

* 1915 , Frank Thomas Bullen, Recollections

I've left my key in my office in Manchester, my family are at Bournemouth, and the old woman who does for me goes home at nine o'clock.

(archaic, dialectal, transitive, auxiliary) Used to form the present progressive of verbs.

* 1844 , William Barnes, Evenén in the Village , Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect:

...An' the dogs do''' bark, an' the rooks be a-vled to the elems high and dark, an' the water '''do roar at mill.

(stock exchange) To cash or to advance money for, as a bill or note.

(informal) To make or provide.

Do they do haircuts there?

Could you do me a burger with mayonnaise instead of ketchup?