Green’s Dictionary of Slang

do over v.

[do v.1 + SE over]

1. in fig. use, to cause harm.

[UK]G. Parker Life’s Painter 138: The melting pot receiver, proved his selling the clink to him (naps the bib) and that’s what did him over.
[US]S. Smith Major Downing (1834) 158: I’ll [...] have him over the coals and du [sic] him over.

2. to disable, to wear out, to tire out.

[UK] ‘The Navigator’s New Victory’ in Holloway & Black II (1979) 145: And so the poor tailor was fairly done o’er.
[UK]Dickens Pickwick Papers (1999) 523: He’s in a horrid state o’ love; reg’larly comfoozled, and done over with it.
[US]‘Philip Paxton’ A Stray Yankee in Texas 96: [The dogs] were completely done over and used up.
[UK]Hotten Sl. Dict.
[US]‘Old Sleuth’ Dock Rats of N.Y. (2006) 107: ‘How does he take the thing?’ ‘He’s all done over.’ ‘Inclined to talk?’ ‘I reckon you can make him talk.’.

3. to cheat, to defraud.

[UK]G. Parker View of Society II 43: And now, Hostler, can’t you tell me how you have done ’em over?
[UK] ‘A Favorite Comic Song’ in Parsley’s Lyric Repository 17: As easy as Humphries in fact, Did over Mendoza the Jew.
[UK]Fortnights Ramble through London 17: ‘You are not the first [...] whom the nimble-fingered gentry have done over’.
[US]J.R. Shaw Life and Travels 139: I supplied her with genteel apparel, and likewise paid a doctor for her during a severe fit of sicknes, after recovering from which she married and left me as usual like the done-over tailor.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK] song title in Fal-Lal Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 6: The Cuckold Drover! or, The Merchant Done Over.
[US]People 6 Jan. in Ware (1909) 112/1: When they comes back, Selby says to me, ‘All I could do him over for was a couple of bob.’.
[UK]J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 112/1: Do over for (Low London). To extract money by flattery or threats.

4. to beat up; lit. or fig.

[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
[UK]Sporting Mag. Nov. XIX 99/2: He and a party of his school-fellows [...] had done the usher over at the ale-house.
[US]M.L. Weems Drunkard’s Looking Glass (1929) 95: ‘Heigh, neighbour! hav’nt I done over one of the rascaly sherriffs.’ Supposing that her husband had murdered the sherrif, she began to fill the house with her cries.
[UK]Egan Bk of Sports 27: marc antony was defeated! suwarrow licked! tippoo saib ‘done over’.
[Aus]L. Glassop We Were the Rats 193: He mentioned instead the night he did over the M.Ps in the blue in Tel Aviv.
[Aus]D. Niland Shiralee 27: Yer’d on’y bite, and next thing I’d be doin’ yer over.
[Aus]W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 71: We could do him over.
[UK]T. Parker Frying-Pan 21: A bunch of screws will go into someone’s cell and do him over physically.
[Aus](con. 1930s) F. Huelin ‘Keep Moving’ 55: Next time any of yous bastards cross this fence ya’ll get really done over.
[Aus]J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 108: ‘He’s got the drop on me, If I do him over, I’m a goner’.
[UK](con. 1950s–60s) in G. Tremlett Little Legs 105: Those geezers had [...] done him over with hammers.
[Scot]I. Welsh Filth 27: You think maybe one ay they racially biased mobs did the darkie-boy over?
[UK]Guardian Guide 12–18 Feb. 52: He’d only get done over in the first boozer he went into, by some young thug.
[UK]Eve. Standard 28 Oct. 7/4: ‘We were done over — comprehensively,’ was the private verdict of a senior Labour politican [...] ‘The French stuffed us’.
[Scot](con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 75: That [...] wis chucked out the polis for daein people ower in the cells.

5. of a man, to seduce, to have intercourse with.

[UK]G. Parker View of Society II 105: The old woman having been used to get a little sucky now and then, he contrived to find out that foible and to do her over in that way.
[UK]Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 263: Ventouser. To copulate; ‘to do over’.
[Aus]R.S. Close With Hooves of Brass 80: ‘Boy, did you get them two titties of her? Squatting there on the table like a couple of rabbits! [...] Christ, but I’d like to do her over!’.
[Aus](con. 1944) L. Glassop Rats in New Guinea 115: Tell us another of yer stories about them sheilas ya used to do over.
[Aus]Benjamin & Pearl Limericks Down Under 99: A boastful old drover / Said he did her over.
[UK]K. Lette Mad Cows 97: ‘Done.’ ‘Done over, you mean.’.

6. to rob.

[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Done, or Done over. Robbed. Cant. also Convicted or Hanged.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd edn).
[UK]A Fortnight’s Ramble through London 17: ‘You are not the first,’ cried Mr. Portfolio,— ‘whom the nimble-figured gentry have done over’.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK]Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 125/2: It doant mattir a straw thau seez abawt ’im ‘collarin’ mi dubble ‘fin,’ kaws I’ll git it bck agin en I ‘du’ is ‘drum’ over.
[UK]Manchester Courier 19 May 3: I got drunk, did a place over, and got caught in the act.
[UK]J. Bent Criminal Life 272: You might tell her to go and do that place over.
[NZ]B. Crump Hang On a Minute, Mate (1963) 88: Hell, Mick, you’ve done a bank over!
[UK]T. Wilkinson Down and Out 159: Did you read about Lady Barnett’s place being done over while her funeral was on?
[Aus]B. Ellem Doing Time 132: I broke into the place and started doing it over.
[Aus]G. Disher Crosskill [ebook] Eileen told him who was going to do over the Mesics.

7. to search thoroughly.

[Aus]Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 29: Ever see her do me over? Gawd, if I’ve got so much as a deener in the cuff of me pants, she gets it.
[NZ]I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 53: All the huts were done over while we [i.e. prisoners] were out.

8. to ransack (a building).

[Aus]K. Tennant Joyful Condemned 370: It was quite some time since the ‘Fortune’ had been done over.
[UK]D. Maclean Bucket of Tongues 1: They came home from the pub to find their flat had been done over.