Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. dead; killed.

1589		Nashe Death and Buriall of Martin Mar-Prelate in Works I (1883–4) 196: Martin is done, and we are undone together.
[1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 69: ‘Done, he is’ — said of a Hart when his throat is cut].
1856		C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend 1 174: ‘I’m done,’ thought Robinson.
c.1865		‘Divil’s own Boy’ in Fred Shaw’s Champion Comic Melodist 17: Says I: ‘Give up! for I am done, / Sure I am the divil’s boy!’.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1890		E. Field ‘Prof. Vere De Blaw’ Little Bk of Western Verse 169: I’m done,— I’m blowed.
1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 124: All de odders was screamin wid fits an worriment, but Mr. Paul found I wasn’t done.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 July 26/1: But Gander grows before my eyes, he tops me like a wall. / As on a stack of bricks I feel my feeble counters fall. / His white set teeth are all I see. I want to turn and run. / And deep within my heart I know that Gander’s got me done.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 170: And then I was fair done.
1941		P.C. Wren Odd – But Even So 69: I’m done ... Bitten in the face.
1958		F. Norman Bang To Rights 177: A lot of geezers got killed [...] and I think there was a few screws in there as well who got done.
a.1964		‘Honky-Tonk Bud’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 59: You’ve had your gun, but now you’re done / ’Cause I sentence you one to five.
1991		P. Blauner Slow Motion Riot 171: ‘[T]hings might be different if you were going to tell me about those guys who got done across the street [...] Those two crack guys who got killed’.
2018-20		T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Dun - kill(ed), punish(ed).

2. exhausted, worn out.

1599		G. Peele Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes in Dyce (1861) 531: Ah, no, my heart is done!
1667		Dryden Annus Mirabilis st. 70: Not so the Holland fleet, who, tired and done, Stretch’d on their decks like weary oxen lie.
1804		Sporting Mag. Mar. XXIII 352/1: Jack’s done! and the sailor is victor.
1812		G. Colman Yngr ‘Lady of the Wreck’ in Poetical Vagaries 100: Huntsman, snore!—for up thou’rt done* [...] *The modern phrase, to be done up, has descended to us from the Slang of the ancients.
1840		T. Haliburton Letter-bag of the Great Western (1873) 204: Coaches is done, Joe — yes, they is done; and it’s a pity too.
c.1860		‘What Shall We Do For Meat!’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 127: They lay their heads on a greasy block, / Saying, we are done for ever.
1870		L. Oliphant Piccadilly 130: ‘I am awfully done,’ said Spiffy. ‘I never went to bed at all last night.’.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 44: We were almost done when we got to the tableland at the top.
1897		W.S. Maugham Liza of Lambeth (1966) 8: ‘I’m abaht done,’ said Sally, blowing and puffing.
1902		F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley’s Opinions 104: I’ve surrindered, Cerveera. I’m done. I quit. I’m all in.
1911		Gem 11 Nov. 19: ‘I’m done,’ he groaned.
1920		Marvel 14 Aug. 6: I’m done [...] I’ve had enough.
1921		(con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 47: Yacob works his way down a few steps and squats down, clean done, poor wretch.
1942		Whizzbang Comics 69: I’m properly done, anyway.
1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 57: We’re through. Quits; done; kaput. Dig?
2005		R. Cea No Lights, No Sirens 182: ‘I’m done, Rob, so fucking done with it all. And I am not going to raise a child in this environment, I’m not’.

3. cheated, swindled.

1781		G. Parker View of Society II 142: When you go thro’ the Jews Walk [...] it is more than probable that you are done for your pocket-book.
1790		Jew Swindler n.p.: I have some hopes of a young Gentleman’s note this afternoon, but he seems cruel leary [...] says that friend of his who has been done at this lay.
c.1800		‘Dustman’s Delight’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 87: The queer cull was done rumly.
1808		B. Bradshaw Hist. of Billy Bradshaw 11: The old card-maker had several times hinted to me that I had been done.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 316: He was up to his gossip,—that he stagged him, for he was not to be done.
1838		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 6 Jan. 74: So ven he com’d and told me on it, says I ‘Bill, vy you’ve been done’.
1845		N.-Y. Trib. 1 Nov. n.p.: Wall street, it appears, is infested with mock-auction shops,–a country-man was done for at No. 15, to the tune of twenty-four dollars.
1852		Bell’s Life in Sydney 9 Oct. 3/2: Witness had strong suspicions of having been done.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor II 20/1: People’s too proud to confess that they’re ever ‘done’ at any time or in anything. Why, such gents has pretended, when I’ve sold them a duffer, and seen them afterwards, that they’ve done me!
1870		B. Harte Luck of Roaring Camp (1873) 134: You remember how the Coyote Tunnel went in, and how awfully we shareholders were done!
1875		‘Aliph Cheem’ Lays of Ind (1905) 48: Thus Perim was won, / And thus Frenchmen were done.
1877		J. Greenwood Dick Temple III 146: They were ‘done,’ and their precious three hundred pounds was gone.
1888		R. Barnett Police Sergeant C 21 71: What about the other petticoat; the one who has done us all so neat by her beautiful scarper.
1890		Bird o’ Freedom 22 Jan. 3: Upon examination it was found that the sovereign was only a counterfeit, much to the mortification of the old gentleman, who suddenly awoke to the fact that he had been done!
1900		Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 79: But, Chief, we’ve been done.
1911		Gem 7 Oct. 6: We’ve been done.
1915		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Comedians All’ Sporting Times 17 Apr. 1/2: The tradesmen the twisters are trying to ‘do,’ / And the twisters the tradesmen have ‘done,’.
1937		Golden 23 Oct. 1: We’ve been tricked, diddled, and done!
1954		Oh Boy! No. 24 12: I’ve been done! Not to say diddled!
1976		D. Hall Dock Ellis 68: ‘Because he got done. Because some people out there hated him.
1981		T. Wilkinson Down and Out 24: Yeah, we was fucking done.
2016		N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] Anyway, the boys got done at the death – no pun intended – by a few points.

4. hanged.

1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.

5. arrested (on a given charge); punished.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1859		‘Scene in a London Flash-Panny’ Matsell Vocabulum 98: Jumping Jack, who was done last week, for heaving a peter from a drag.
1861		Melbourne Punch ‘City Police Court’ 3 Oct. 234/1: The Mayor. – Prisoner at the bar, you are a dimber damber kiddy, but you are done for a ramp.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1935		G. Ingram Cockney Cavalcade 176: You’ll get ‘done’ too, one of these days.
1944		J. Cary Horse’s Mouth (1948) 7: I got to thinking how I’d been done.
1958		F. Norman Bang To Rights 79: As well as getting done for the snout you get done for making false accqusations against a prison officer.
1967		N. Dunn Poor Cow 13: They done him for forty-two charges.
1970		T. Parker Frying-Pan 3: Me and some other lads broke into a store, we got done for that.
1981		(con. c.1910) A. Harding in Samuel East End Und. 80: You kept changing partners in the coining line, because if you got off and the others were ‘done’, people would think you had ‘dropped’ on them (i.e. squealed).
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 173: Rena had form in Gloucester. She had been done for shoplifting in 1969.
1999		D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 29: get done v. To be convicted.
2001		N. Griffiths Sheepshagger 55: He’d been done for raping his mate’s sister.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 77/2: get done v. 2 to be arrested.
2002		R.G. Barrett Mystery Bay Blues 12: Serina got done in WA for conspiracy to import cocaine.
2018		G. Gilmore Class Act [ebook] Film it and get Murdoch done for GBH.

6. in fig. senses, badly defeated, ‘finished’.

1848		Thackeray Vanity Fair II 60: If I’m done, those two ought to fetch you something.
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter I 62: ‘By G — [...] Bradon is done. We shall all drop finely’.
1906		C. M’Govern Sarjint Larry an’ Frinds 58: Serge, Oi tell you we’re done for.
1909		D. Stewart Dead Man’s Gold in Illus. Police News 10 Apr. 12/4: ‘Cheese it, Peter, the cull will tumble, and he isn’t fair done yet’.
1917		F. Packard Adventures of Jimmie Dale (1918) I iv: Al Gregor said that? Then—then I’m done!
1919		Wodehouse ‘Jeeves and the Hard-Boiled Egg’ in My Man Jeeves [ebook] ‘I’m done, Bertie!’ he said. He had another go at the glass. It didn’t seem to do him any good.
1923–4		F. Anthony ‘Gus Buys a Bull’ in Me And Gus (1977) 44: I thought the old chap was done that time.
1937		W.M. Raine Cool Customer 317: Friend West and his gang are done. Either they leave the country or go to the penitentiary.
1965		H.S. Thompson letter 10 Aug. in Proud Highway (1997) 538: In short, if I blow the action, I’m done.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 255: If something happens to Christina because of you [...] you’re done.
2021		J. Fenton We Own This City 190: Jenkins [...] worried about the kind of evidence authorities might have [...] Hendrix recalled Jenkins saying. ‘I’m done’.

7. of a commodity, finished.

1854		G.J. Whyte-Melville General Bounce (1891) 157: We only finished the biscuit this morning [...] The baccy’ll soon be done too.
1905		‘Another Fall of Rain’ in ‘Banjo’ Paterson Old Bush Songs 17: When the money’s done, and we’ve had our fun , / We all are bound to ride.

8. beaten up, assaulted.

1937		P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 27: Plenty people said he’d been done at the Hacienda after they took him for his dough.
1971		J. Mandelkau Buttons 25: I got done by a group of Mods.
1986		J. Campbell Gate Fever 98: I was threatened before the handcuffs were removed that if I got stroppy I would be DONE. This threat came from a police officer.
1998		J. Hoskison Inside 73: Tommo’s been done.

9. (US, also done in) raped.

1965

H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 136: Some white broad got done in in town and she says it was a soul brother.

10. (UK juv.) reprimanded, told off.

2001

OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 done v. to get ‘done’ means to be told off or chastised for some wrong-doing, e.g. ‘I got done for pulling her hair!’.

11. (N.Z. prison) convicted.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 77/2: get done v. 1 to be convicted.