how-do-you-do n.1
1. (US) a thrashing; also attrib.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Diverting Hist. of John Bull and Brother Jonathan 42: The Frogmoreans came [...] flourishing their broom staffs, with full intention of giving Bull’s tenants a how-d’ye-do, that they would not forget as long as they lived. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Pardners (1912) 13: Of all the cordial, why-how-do-you-do mule kicks handed down [...] that wallop was the adopted daddy. |
2. a problem, a difficulty, a fuss; usu. as a fine/pretty how-do-you-do [= stew n.1 or SE to-do].
| Life and Adventures of Dr Dodimus Duckworth I 206: Alive! eh! that’s a pretty how-d-ye-do! | |
| Sam Slick in England I 125: I’ve had a pretty how-do-ye-do about it this mornin’. | |
| Flush Times of Alabama and Mississippi 306: Hoot, man, what are you making all that how-de-do for? | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bell’s Life in Sydney 25 Sept. 3/4: Mrs Howe [...] missed her purse when about to pay the reckoning. A pretty how-dye-do was raised. | |
| Belfast Morn. News 1 May 4/2: This is a pretty how d’ye do [...] my wife gone on to New York alone, and I left behind. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | N.Z. Observer (Auckland) 22 Jan. 180/4: There has [...] been a fine how-dye-do re my remarks about the Schnackenberg esclandre. | |
| (con. c.1840) Huckleberry Finn 303: That would be a pretty howdy-do, wouldn’t it! I never heard of such a thing. | |
| Leeds Times 19 Sept. 3/5: [headline] Here’s a Pretty How D’Ye Do. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 19 Feb. 1/3: The natives came and saw and slew, / And made a bloody how d’ye do. | |
| (con. 1875) Cruise of the ‘Cachalot’ 163: When we got to them, there was a pretty how-d’ye-do. All of them were more or less drunk. | |
| [perf. Marie Lloyd] The Coster’s Wedding 🎵 There’s bin a reg’lar ‘How-de-do-dee-do’ this Sunday, boys / For sich a splicing-up o’ pairs you never saw. | |
| Spoilers 71: What’s all the fuss? [...] Makin’ all this how-de-do as if you was a real lady. | |
| Western Champion (Barcakldine, Qld) 16 Mar. 12/2: It looks as though all the how-d’ye-do and hullaballoo about the Premier’s immigration scheme was far too previous. | |
| ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:iv 322: howdy-do, n. [...] commotion, uproar. ‘She found a pretty howdy-do at her house when she got home.’. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | ‘Ivy Day in the Committee Room’ Dubliners (1956) 121: ‘That’s a nice how-do-you-do,’ said Mr O’Connor. ‘How does he expect us to work for him if he won’t stump up?’. | |
| ‘Sanguinary Jeremiah’ in Old Man Curry 137: That’s a fine howdy-do!’ snapped the exasperated old man. | |
| A Thousand and One Afternoons [ebook] Well, well, here's a howdeedo. His nobs is going to play the concerto. Good-by, good luck and God bless him. | |
| (con. 1835–40) Bold Bendigo 308: On my life and soul here’s a how-d’ye do! | |
| Classics in Sl. 57: Well, naturally enough, they was a great how de do about the thing the next mornin’. | |
| Bully Hayes 60: Here was a pretty how-de-do! | |
| ‘Cemetery Bait’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 522: It is a pretty how-do-you-do if such goings-on are tolerated in society circles. | |
| Parm Me 141: A fine hoddeya do, Doc says. | |
| For the Rest of Our Lives 368: A good deal of firing and general howd’youdo on the flanks. | |
| Grass in Piccadilly 109: I should think there’s a nice how-de-do going on on the nursery floor. | |
| Jennings Goes To School 76: There’ll be an awful how-d’you-do if you don’t turn up. | |
| We Think The World Of You (1971) 60: ‘That’d be a how-d’you-do!’ Millie cackled. | |
| Picture Palace 172: This is a fine how-do-you-do. |
3. in pl., trousers.
| ‘A Tale of the Rockies’ in Billy Bennett’s Third Budget 26: He was shot in two places, when down came his braces, / He’d to hold up his how-do-you-does. |
4. (US) in pl., ladies underwear, pyjamas.
| Limey 215: D’ya like the colour of the how-d’ye-do, Limey? Oh-de-Neel, she called it. |