Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. in fig. use, to cause harm.

1789		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.
1833		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.

1780		‘Roger Wittol’ An Incredible Bore 16: I found that my purse was most certainly dish’d§ [...] § Dish’d I should imagine this metaphor to be borrowed from Cookery; in a kitchen any thing dished, is finished, and thus it may be confidered adequate to an expression in high vogue with the vulgar, done over.
1787		‘The Navigator’s New Victory’ in Holloway & Black II (1979) 145: And so the poor tailor was fairly done o’er.
1836–7		Dickens Pickwick Papers (1999) 523: He’s in a horrid state o’ love; reg’larly comfoozled, and done over with it.
1853		‘Philip Paxton’ A Stray Yankee in Texas 96: [The dogs] were completely done over and used up.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1908		‘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.

1781		G. Parker View of Society II 43: And now, Hostler, can’t you tell me how you have done ’em over?
1789		‘A Favorite Comic Song’ in Parsley’s Lyric Repository 17: As easy as Humphries in fact, Did over Mendoza the Jew.
1795		Fortnights Ramble through London 17: ‘You are not the first [...] whom the nimble-fingered gentry have done over’.
1807		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.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1833		song title in Fal-Lal Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 6: The Cuckold Drover! or, The Merchant Done Over.
1895		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.’.
1909		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.

1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
1801		Sporting Mag. Nov. XIX 99/2: He and a party of his school-fellows [...] had done the usher over at the ale-house.
1818		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.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 27: marc antony was defeated! suwarrow licked! tippoo saib ‘done over’.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 193: He mentioned instead the night he did over the M.Ps in the blue in Tel Aviv.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 27: Yer’d on’y bite, and next thing I’d be doin’ yer over.
1961		X. Herbert Soldiers’ Women (1978) 360: [T]hey had got in touch with him to enlist his aid in doing over Mary Ann and robbing her of whatever they could lay hands on.
1970		T. Parker Frying-Pan 21: A bunch of screws will go into someone’s cell and do him over physically.
1973		(con. 1930s) F. Huelin ‘Keep Moving’ 55: Next time any of yous bastards cross this fence ya’ll get really done over.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 108: ‘He’s got the drop on me, If I do him over, I’m a goner’.
1989		(con. 1950s–60s) in G. Tremlett Little Legs 105: Those geezers had [...] done him over with hammers.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 27: You think maybe one ay they racially biased mobs did the darkie-boy over?
2000		Guardian Guide 12–18 Feb. 52: He’d only get done over in the first boozer he went into, by some young thug.
2011		Eve. Standard 28 Oct. 7/4: ‘We were done over — comprehensively,’ was the private verdict of a senior Labour politican [...] ‘The French stuffed us’.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 75: That [...] wis chucked out the polis for daein people ower in the cells.
2020		A. Parks Bobby March Will Live Forever 239: ‘He did Alec Page over, took great pleasure in it. And he’s the one that attacked Laura’.

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

1730		Sel. Trials Old Bailey III 237: Mary Green. I asked her what she did [‘in the Garret’] with the young Man, and she answer’d, What if I have a Mind that he should do me over.
1781		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.
1868		q. in Brickell Mates & Lovers (2008) 45: ‘Come on, I am going to do you over.’ [...] ‘You cannot do me over, I am not a woman’ [Simes:DLSS].
1872		Victorian Publ. Records Off. File 30 420/30/3 I told him, I would give him in charge for ‘trying to do me over’.
1887		H. Baumann Londonismen.
1888-94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life VIII 1519: The girl was told I was the doctor to Sarah and I once used to ‘Do her over’ (her usual term)—but now tho I came to see her as doctor, I never fucked her.
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 263: Ventouser. To copulate; ‘to do over’.
1900-10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms].
1915		W.J. Chidley Confessions (1977) 101: ‘You did her over yourself,’ he said. I laughed [Simes:DLSS].
1946		K. Tennant Tell Morning This (1967) 95: He couldn’t do her over with Else and Violet there in the back seat.
1952		T.A.G. Hungerford Sowers of Wind 109: ‘Some Indians,.. Six of them in Setsuo’s place, doing his sheila over, I think’.
1961		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!’.
1963		(con. 1944) L. Glassop Rats in New Guinea 115: Tell us another of yer stories about them sheilas ya used to do over.
1970		W. Watkins Wayward Warriors (1972) 94: McCall thought about the sheila he had done over on his first visit to Brisbane.
1984		Benjamin & Pearl Limericks Down Under 99: A boastful old drover / Said he did her over.
1996		K. Lette Mad Cows 97: ‘Done.’ ‘Done over, you mean.’.

6. to rob.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Done, or Done over. Robbed. Cant. also Convicted or Hanged.
1788		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd edn).
1795		A Fortnight’s Ramble through London 17: ‘You are not the first,’ cried Mr. Portfolio,— ‘whom the nimble-figured gentry have done over’.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1865		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.
1869		Manchester Courier 19 May 3: I got drunk, did a place over, and got caught in the act.
1891		J. Bent Criminal Life 272: You might tell her to go and do that place over.
1961		B. Crump Hang On a Minute, Mate (1963) 88: Hell, Mick, you’ve done a bank over!
1981		T. Wilkinson Down and Out 159: Did you read about Lady Barnett’s place being done over while her funeral was on?
1984		B. Ellem Doing Time 132: I broke into the place and started doing it over.
1994		G. Disher Crosskill [ebook] Eileen told him who was going to do over the Mesics.
2017		A. Parks Bloody January 60: ‘No pro would do over one of my pubs, wouldnae be that stupid’.

7. to search thoroughly.

1951		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.
1953		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).

1953		K. Tennant Joyful Condemned 370: It was quite some time since the ‘Fortune’ had been done over.
1992		D. Maclean Bucket of Tongues 1: They came home from the pub to find their flat had been done over.
2023		A. Parks To Die in June 1347: Whoever had done over Norma McGregor’s flat had done a good job. McCoy and Wattie stood in the middle of the chaos and looked round.