Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) (also do with) of a man, to copulate with a woman; occas. vice versa.

c.1534		Bourchier Huon of Burdeux I 155: She is myn owne, therefore I wyll do with her at my pleasure.
c.1566		Harman Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 72: This goodman [...] lay down by her, and straight would have had to do with her.
1573		‘Cambridg Libell’ in May & Bryson Verse Libel 336: Tom Allen rides woynge, / [...] / Some say he hath been Doynge.
1596		Nashe Have With You to Saffron-Walden in Works III (1883–4) 180: In some Countreys no woman is so honorable as she that hath had to doo with most men, and can giue the lustiest striker oddes by 25 times in one night, as Messalina did.
1605		Marston Dutch Curtezan III i: Though you can bear more than I, yet I can do well.
1609–12		R. Daborn Christian turn’d Turke I v: Do a woman to death, and she will bee satisfied, nothing else will.
1620–50		‘A Creature for Feature’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) II 11: But hie tro lolly lolly, le silly willy cold not doe. / all content with him was spent.
1638		Ford Fancies III iii: [She] may do well enough for one [...] One! ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand; do beyond arithmetic.
1641		‘The Life and Death of Lord Atherton’ [poem] Some women he did doe in Charitie / And some because they us’d good Cookery.
1659		Greene & Lodge Lady Alimony IV iii: Little good does that stud without a Stallion [...] Meanly manned, worse appointed, / Who would do if he knew how, / But, alas! he would, but cannot.
a.1661		‘Honest Mens Resolution’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) II 200: Let’s do ’um like men, quoth Dan, / Let’s fill up their Chincks.
a.1674		‘Canting Song’ Head Canting Academy (1674) 24: This bouncing Trull can finely talk, / She will do for a penny.
1680		M. Stevenson Wits Paraphras’d 90: I’d [i.e. Helen of Troy] fain be Doing — yet ’t were best ’een / Give over, and leave off our jesting. / Tis bad to trust our geer with strangers.
1684		C. Cotton Erotopolis 169: [He] had to do with her but a week since.
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict. 23: [as cit. a.1674].
1763		J. Wilkes ‘Universal Prayer’ Essay on Woman 22: Sound, honest Cunts shou’d oft be done.
1833		‘Life In London’ Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 15: The second time that John had done, / She fain would have him play her another; / Which made poor John look pale and wan, / And put him in a devil of a pother.
c.1864		‘Stop the Cart!’ Rakish Rhymer (1917) 3: ‘Righto!’ cries Giles — ‘the wager’s laid — All is done except the maid.’.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) I 74: One day I did her on the kitchen table, and several times on the dining room table.
1890		Sporting Times 1 Feb. 3/1: I was ready to go anywhere and do anything — or anybody.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 169: I don’t believe this squaddy done ’er at all.
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 29: ‘Do me again,’ said Angela. ‘I love you.’.
1970		G.F. Newman Sir, You Bastard 34: He would also like to do the man’s daughter.
1972		D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 237: I’m staying here to do nothing for two or three days but drink and sleep and maybe do me a Linda and a Sandi.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 339: He go round there every morning and does be doing she arse off.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 135: [of a prostitute] ‘I gets rumbled by free fuckin’ coppers and have to do ’em all [...] to get out of the lag’’.
1998		J. Lansdale Rumble Tumble 19: [of a woman] Some little chippie in boogie town does a coon and gets ten bucks.
2005		Mad mag. May 45: Female contestants with pouty lips, do-me hair, and big boobs.
2008		T. Dorsey Atomic Lobster 55: Guess I’ll just have to do her.
2008		J. Niven Kill Your Friends (2009) 22: Nicky is un-doable. You could not do her. She could not be done.
2008		in J. Miller Getting Played 137: [of a woman] ‘I guess he just came to her and asked her, “Is you gon’ do everybody?” or whatever and she said “Yeah”’.
2013		T. Dorsey Riptide Ultra-Glide 142: ‘He picked the blonde in the skimpiest suit [...] I’d do her’.
2016		Harlem Spartans ‘Hazards’ 🎵 Squa’ said she just done the 6, now she on the ends just boppin’ (bad, she bad).
2018		G. Disher Kill Shot [ebook] A well-stacked bottle blonde. She liked to do both boys at once.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Broken’ in Broken 13: ‘I’ve always wanted to do Phoebe’.

(b) to defeat.

1788, 1796		(con. 1787) Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: Do [...] to overcome in a boxing match: witness those laconic lines written on the field of battle, by Humphreys to his patron. — ‘Sir, I have done the Jew.’.
1801		‘Modern Dict.’ in Sporting Mag. May XVIII 100/1: [as cit. 1788].
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1821		D. Haggart Autobiog. 65: I [...] hearkened to him, that we would do the swag cove in a far neater manner.
1829		Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) III 81: It was he who floored Bailli, Jacquet, and Martinet [...] let me tell you how he did them.
1842		S. Lover Handy Andy 162: Did I not do him neatly?
1849		Bell’s Life in Sydney 9 June 3/2: Done - done - done ‘like a dinner,’ I am.
1853		G.J. Whyte-Melville Digby Grand (1890) 49: I pull her up [...] conscious that Fancy Jack has done me by a short half-length.
1865		Dickens Our Mutual Friend (1994) 173: By the lord, he’s done me!
1879		Proc. Old Bailey 15 Dec. 251: God perish me blind I will wait on your brother all night till I catch him, and if I do not do him in two rounds, may I never put my hands up again.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) I 172: At each failure she laughed and said, ‘Done again’.
1890		Sporting Times 8 Mar. 2/1: To do the tables and a grabber is a thing to be celebrated.
1897		Ade Pink Marsh (1963) 133: It ain’t wrote in no book ’at Gawge Lippincott can do me at no game.
1901		D. Cotsford Society Snapshots 240: Miss Lowther (sighing). Poor children! . . . have they, then, no faiths [...] no hopes? Miss de Burlington. None . . . except, perhaps, in being able to ‘do’ their neighbours.
1903		O. Kildare My Mamie Rose 60: I [...] then would forget all, rules, time limits and all else, to ‘sail in’ with most deadly determination to ‘do’ my opponent at all hazards.
1912		Bennington Eve. Banner 14 Sept. 1/6: The Cambridge management has been insisting [...] that it could collect a team strong enough to ‘do’ the Berkshire league champs.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 136: But what fair did me was this [...] the gals liked it. Liked it!
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 21 Feb. 10/2: They Say [...] That it would be better sport than letting the Cameroon do you for the fat tart.
1918		A. Brazil Patriotic Schoolgirl 213: ‘Save a bun, And do the Hun!’.
1933		(con. WW1) in J.B. Booth Pink Parade 38: Glory, glory, hallielooyer! / Bill, old dog, we’re going to do yer!
1957		G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 306: The Ullage mob’s on the way, and oh Jesus, will we do ’em!
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 37/1: do, do in [...] to defeat.
1999		Indep. Rev. 28 Aug. 5: Climb all over us like a cheap suit, do us like a dinner.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

(c) to murder, to kill.

1780		Sessions Papers 611/2 n.p.: He got one of our cutlasses, which was drawn; and said, ‘D-n my eyes, here is one of Akerman’s bloody thieves, let us do him first.’.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 68: Do him, Joey: i.e. let fly and kill him.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 25 Apr. 18/2: The blacks have done me, Billy, now – / The moments seem to fly – / You’ll have to go alone, Billy, / Oh, God! ’tis hard to die.
1893		Dly Gaz. for Middlesborough 28 Feb. 3/3: A quarrel ensued and the prisoner threatened to ‘do’ his wife.
1899		A.C. Gunter M.S. Bradford Special 45: Murder! Oh, Lordy! The fellow done him!
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 314: I’ll do him before I’m through! [...] I’ll get him, if I have to go wit’ him!
1912		P.C. Wren Dew & Mildew 270: ‘That’s all tosh and posh [...] You could easily do a land-crab if it came for you’.
1911		D. Runyon ‘The Informal Execution of Soupbone Pew’ in From First to Last (1954) 68: Anyway, they never tried to do him, that job belonging to Coulon, Honey Grove and the others.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. of Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: do; to do in. To kill.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 380: Con the Greek had been robbed and done to death.
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 134: He had one of them flat black guns pointing at them [...] ‘I’ll do the boy first,’ he says, ‘Then you.’.
1959		W. Hall Long and the Short and the Tall Act I: You want to make out a report! Because we do a Jap?
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 29: I could have done ’er, and no kidding.
1980		T. Lewis GBH 314: ‘He was on his own when we done him’.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 86: ‘If you [...] aren’t miles away from here very quick, I’ll do you’.
1987		R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 59: The way he looked at me was like he was thinking about doing me and getting his rocks off right on the spot.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 201: You think Short Man did the kids?
1998		P. McCabe Breakfast on Pluto 82: Do him! Do him, Kerr, you bollocks you!
1999		P. Temple Black Tide (2012) [ebook] Bitch wanted Frank done. In it over her tits.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 186: Hes so buzzed he even point out the bit of the Grand Union canal where they threw Jack the Hat McVities car keys after they done him.
2006		D. Winslow Winter of Frankie Machine (2007) 92: If i find out you did him [...] I’ll be back.
2009		L. McIlvanney All the Colours 165: ‘So you ever [...] put that word [i.e. ‘tout’] and my name in the same fucking sentence [...] I’ll do you’.
2018		‘Aidan Truhen’ Price You Pay 123: Man I’m not gonna watch you do Billy.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] ‘It gets me hot that after I do you, I, you know, do you’.
2021		Breen & Conlon Hitmen 225: ‘You’re going in to do two people on your own’.
2023		D. Whish-Wilson I Am Already Dead 243: ‘[I]f I can’t touch him, I have to do you. As a message’.

(d) to prosecute; usu. do for burglary, rape etc.

1788		G.A. Stevens Adventures of a Speculist I 50: I wonder Williams the sheriff’s officer has not done him to-day. I advised a friend of mine to take out an action against him last night for a hundred.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. n.p.: Jack, who was done last week for heaving a peter from a drag [F&H].
1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 141: An old offender in New York, a man who has known the thief’s world for a long lifetime and has succeeded in ‘doing’ mouth-pieces and has been ‘done’ by them.
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 277: ‘Why can’t you do me here?’ ‘Job was done on another manor. You’ve got to be up at their Court.’.
1942		N. Algren Never Come Morning (1988) 100: If it’s just contributin’ to delinquency though, they can’t do you more’n a year in the Workie.
1969		F. Norman Norman’s London 196: The third time they did us for a similar sort of thing and we got fined £100.
1970		T. Parker Frying-Pan 140: You don’t want to get done for life now do you?
1986		C. Stroud Close Pursuit (1988) 203: All we can do him for is a C felony assault.
1993		M. Dibdin Dying of the Light 143: I take it that you are no longer proposing to ‘do’ me for murder.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 31: Just provoke us into a massive off. Then they can do us for that. Bang us about and do us.
2012		D. Sheldon ‘Farm Hands’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] Shut up, I had to do it; we would’ve got done no matter what.

(e) of people, to assault, to beat up; of things, places, to break up, to destroy.

1832		Mons. Merlin 13 Oct. 4: Cowley [...] appeared on a warrant charging him with threatening to do for Jemmy Jackson .
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. IV 38: Hays, Mose, you’ve done him!
1890		Sporting Times 25 Jan. 1/2: There were no matadors, nor any chance of picking up the whole lot, and then doing the other man in the eyeball.
1893		H. Lawson ‘Two Men’ in Roderick (1972) 103: You could ’a’ done him easy as winkin’.
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 376: I said I’d do that fella [...] and I will.
1909		I.L. Nascher Wretches of Povertyville 233: Desperation nerves the criminal to attack a police officer in his efforts to escape arrest, but the young tough will try to ‘do the cop’ in a spirit of bravado. If he succeeds he is the hero of his class.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 553: Go it, Harry. Do him one in the eye.
1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 6: I’m gonna do that gaff. I’ll smash the bloody place up.
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 134: I want a doctor. He done me.
1952		C. Harris Death of a Barrow Boy 24: I’ll do you!
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 162: I could ‘ave done you proper.
1968		P. Terson Apprentices (1970) I iii: If you do him, I’ll do you. And all your bloody gang.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 91: Baby, why, why do you make me do you like this?
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 62: This time whiskey didn’t do me like it had been doing for the last six years.
1976		D. Ireland Glass Canoe (1982) 81: Did me ankle. But at least I got away.
1976		P. Theroux Family Arsenal 177: Okay, Fred! Do him! Do him!
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines xx: Dey do you in a minute! — love wise, fightin’ wise.
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 122: The reason the locks got done is that they’ve been fucking us about over the rules around here.
1993		T. Winton Lockie Leonard: Scumbuster (1995) 71: I did a fan belt about thirty k’s out of town.
1999		Indep. Rev. 25 Sept. 1: Michael’s gonna do him. He’s gonna drill that Eubank bad.
2005		B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 189: You’d better tell that nonce to leave off or Sparky’ll do him.
2010		K. Richards Life 214: After about ninety-nine broken heads, I guessed they were going to do the whole bench.

(f) (US) to betray, to inform on.

1887		Cincinnati Enquirer (OH) 24 Dec. 12/5: ‘When a fellow tries to throw the blame on me I “do” him, and if a fellow blew on me, I’d get up in the dock and I’d swear to all I knew about him and do him up for good.
1903		H. Hapgood Autobiog. of a Thief 221: Then I knew I had been ‘done’ by Sandy and Hacks.
1942		N. Algren Never Come Morning (1988) 113: What you think that Benkowski’d do if he was in your shoes now? He’s older than you son— he’d do you in a minute. He’d take care of hisself first.
2021		J. Fenton We Own This City 230: ‘He wasn’t ‘doing’ anybody outside of the dude who was already in jail, who everybody else was doing,’ Eldridge said.

(g) (Aus. und.) to subject to crime.

1889		Tasmanian (Launceston) 28 Sept. 25/2: A bold and skilful hotel sneak haf [sic] been ‘doing’ Paris lately.
1904		Truth (Brisbane) 14 Feb. 1/6: They were not concerned about justice being done, except in the slang sense of the term, and they were prepared to ‘do’ her as often as possible.

(h) to arrest, to capture.

1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 141: If you want me to respect law and society, as you call them, get after me on the level and show me that you’re strong enough to do me by your lonely.
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 303: ‘Done her?’ He says [...] ‘Done her what for?’.
1961		(con. 1920s) J. Sparks Burglar to the Nobility 39: We was done, as they say, bang to rights.
1974		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell Plays Solomon (1976) 58: They had come to do me for organizing Reggie Mancini’s escape from Parkhurst.
1980		J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 62: I know yer, don’t I? [...] Did you for D-and-D.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 45: One day they’ll do us righ’ here.
2001		J. King White Trash 258: They’ll come hassle us and do us for the dope.
2022		A. Parks May God Forgive 54: ‘[F]ell in with the wrong crowd at school. Been done for shoplifting, breach of the peace, the usual stuff’.

(i) to make the butt of a joke.

1904		Marvel 22 Oct. 31: Jest tew think ’ow you chump-heads ha’ bin done!
1908		Magnet 13 June 4: You’ve been done, Bob!

(j) to mistreat.

1906		A. Train Prisoner at the Bar 68: Sometimes [...] a criminal conspiracy between the complainant and the officer is disclosed to ‘do’ a mischievous, but not criminal, youth who has fallen into their disfavor.
1927		T. Alexander ‘Farm Hand Blues’ 🎵 I’d rather see my coffin come easing through the world / Than to see my woman do me like she does.
1941		C.S. Johnson Growing Up in the Black Belt 219: [T]he white man had cheated him out of pract’ly everything. [...] They don’t let you keep books on ’em, and if you dispute ’em, that’s how they do you.
c.1951		N. Algren ‘Watch Out for Daddy’ in Entrapment (2009) 117: You’ll be more sorry than you now know if you do me this way. For your own heart’s sake, don’t do me this way.
1960		J. Brosnan Long Season 261: ‘Why d’you do me like that, man?’ he asks, with a terribly hurt expression, as if I deliberately got him out!
1970		G. Cain Blueschild Baby 10: ‘Tommy please, it’s my birthday, don’t do me this way [...] I’ll get you the money back tomorrow’.
2001		(con. 1990s) in J. Miller One of the Guys 169-70: ‘Oh my God, they dog Andrea so bad [...] I’m like, “Andrea, if it was me they would not do me like that” [...] They ain’t gotta do her like that. But she don’t gotta let them do her like that either’.
2013		T. Robinson Hard Bounce [ebook] ‘I hook you guys up with Baldy and the videos and you’re gonna do me like that?’.

(k) to search, to raid.

1919		‘Sax Rohmer’ Dope 230: I’ve got half a dozen good men doing every dive from Wapping to Gravesend.
1927		D. Hammett ‘$106,000 Blood Money’ Story Omnibus (1966) 335: ‘Seen Angel Grace,’ I asked. ‘Yes, last night. We did the dumps.’.
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 296: All them coppers was lumping about the house and Ma was sitting there [...] while they was doing His drum.
2003		Simon & Burns ‘Hard Cases’ Wire ser. 2 ep. 4 [TV script] ‘We’re going to have to search your vehicle, man.’ [...] ‘You got no call to be doin’ me like this’.

(l) to sue, to take to court, to charge with a crime; thus X was done for taking and driving away.

1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 277: What they done you for, mate? Copper bashing?
1970		‘Metropolitan Police Sl.’ in P. Laurie Scotland Yard (1972) 322: done for: convicted of, e.g. ‘Done for drunk’, ‘Done for speed’.
2000		Indep. Rev. 15 Jan. 6: I had to do her – and if I had to, I’d do her again.

(m) of a man, to have homosexual intercourse.

1947		(con. 1944) J.H. Burns Gallery (1948) 146: Done anyone nice lately? What a town to cruise this is.
1965		A. James America’s Homosexual Underground 77: I did everything and did everybody.
1970		San Diego Sailor 19: I began thinking how good it had been when he was doing me and how big his had felt.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 263: That big lady. [...] She pulled out a gun and said I had to do Tony or she’d blow my pinga off.

(n) to attack in a non-physical sense.

1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 323: It’s about doing a screw – or getting him done – by the law.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 235: do (one) 1. Disparage or harass.
1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 17: They get a chance to do you, they’ll do you.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 160: We all want it an we can do it, proper work it out an then proper do the cunt.

(o) (orig. US gay) to perform fellatio.

1949		‘Swasarnt Nerf’ et al. Gay Girl’s Guide 8: do: To fellate, blow, bring to an orgasm orally.
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 24: She looked at him coquettishly. Let me do you Vinnie.
1974		J. Lahr Hot to Trot 20: The first time Irene did me, she made me wear a Trojan. That must have been as big a treat as licking a Good Humor in its wrapper.
1987		R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 1: Chance they might see some twangie boy down on his knees doing a sailor up from San Pedro.
1992		R.C. Cruz Straight Outta Compton 52: Wanna get blowed? [...] I’ll do you for free.
2016		67 ‘Milly Rock’ 🎵 Peng ting wanna do the gang, put my dick straight down her throat.

(p) to irritate, to mess around.

1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 61: Why do you wanta do the Doctor this way, baby?
1998		K. Sampson Awaydays 3: It’s doing everyone’s swedes in that the Scousers still see us as Wools.

(q) to injure (other than through violence).

1993

M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read How to Shoot Friends 53: He ran a swift 26.1 seconds, then he did this small muscle in his back. The vet bills aren’t worth it.

(a) (also do for) to cheat, to defraud, to swindle.

1641		H. Best Farming & Acct. Books in Pubs. Thoresby Soc. (1938) 158: And I can doe, / My master too, / When my master turnes his backe .
1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 6: The Sailor has done by you, Sir, as you would have done by him.
1768		O. Goldsmith Good Natur’d Man II i: If the man comes from the Cornish borough, you must do him.
1788		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd edn) n.p.: Do To do any one; to rob and cheat him. I have done him; I have robbed him.
1796		T. Morton Way to Get Married in Inchbold (1808) XXV 70: My name in the Gazette at this moment when I was doing them all in such a capital style!
1807		H. Tufts Autobiog. (1930) 293: To do him of his blowen signifies to rob him of his wife.
1811		Annotations in J. Poole Hamlet Travestie 81: To do a person is to cheat him.
1822		D. Carey Life in Paris 357: What Mr. Sovong said was all sheer gammon to try and do her into giving a large sum for some worthless bauble.
1834		Morn. Chron. (London) 2 Oct. 4/4: A notorious swindler, who ‘did’ the public to the tune of some thousands of pounds.
1835		‘Frisky Poll Of Broker’s Alley’ in Knowing Chaunter 20: She’d done the cove upon the tally; / She’d nail’d the simple kiddy’s blunt, / And he had nicks in Broker’s-alley.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 14 May n.p.: How long have you been on the mace, / And studied how to do?
1847		‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 24 Jan. 4/2: Thus ended intended dodge the first, for 1847 [...] but this time the knowing ones bave been done, and ‘sarve them right’ I say.
1847		R.F. Walond Paddiana I 187: I dislike the Welsh [...] they are dirty and prone to ‘do.’ I was not sorry in this instance to see one of them ‘done’.
1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 30 Sept. 2/5: The aggrieved Solicitor entered into a narrative of the attempt to ‘do’ him.
1850		‘Ned Buntline’ G’hals of N.Y. 74: He was destined to go without any satisfaction as to the name of the gentleman who had ‘done’ him.
1851		R.S. Surtees Young Tom Hall (1926) 199: Old Hall, however, was not to be done that way.
1867		J. Greenwood Unsentimental Journeys 8: The Hebrew who, having nicely arranged his brummagem jewellery, had nothing else (but customers) to do.
1879		‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ in Macmillan’s Mag. (London) XL 502: Do anybody, but mind they don’t do you.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 June 12/2: [The Divisional Board] proceeds with the job, giving the ratepayer substantial value for his money, and retaining a little balance for their corporate selves, but ‘doing’ the national exchequer barefacedly.
1889		H. Smart Long Odds I 145: His lordship has tried to ‘do’ me, and, in my way, I'll just see if I can't ‘do’ his lordship.
1892		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘The Rhyme of the Rusher’ Sporting Times 29 Oct. n.p.: The mug I’d fleeced had been his head man, / And had done him for lots of chink.
1895		Coburg Leader (Vic.) 5 Oct. 4/3: That curly pupil teacher ought to 1 geta girl'of his own and not try and do a pal for his donah.
1900		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 26 May 3/3: More than once he has knocked out hoodlums who took him for a countryman and tried to ‘do’ him.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 220: ’E did Scotty fer er tray-bit — ’angin’s too good fer him!
1907		D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 7 Sept. 12/3: ‘Not the first time as I’ve played Abraham. It wants a lot of faking to do them two cusses’.
1917		‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘Done for the Double’ in Three Elephant Power 130: His motto was, ‘Up and be doing — somebody’.
1926		‘Sapper’ Final Count 942: The traitor. But I’ll do him yet. I’ll cheat him.
1934		J. Peterkin Roll, Jordan, Roll 105: Jesus! Harry! I wouldn a think you’d a do me so.
1941		G.D.H. & M. Cole Counter-point Murder 123: Generous with her money and always ready to help a good cause, though she doesn’t like being done.
1953		J. Thompson Criminal (1993) 22: You figure everyone’s out to do you so you do them first.
1965		H.S. Thompson letter 22 Oct. in Proud Highway (1997) 546: If I was done out of a grand I’m going to get some kicks, if nothing else.
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 116: A accused B [...] of having done him of five ‘grand’.
1983		N. Heard House of Slammers 57: ‘Whatcha gon’ do?’ [...] ‘Everything and everybody I can!’.
1999		‘Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 77: Whores do niggers like that every day but they don’t ever expect a nigger to do it to them.
1999		P. Temple Black Tide (2012) [ebook] Umpteenth time he’s done me.

(b) to rob.

1774		Proceedings Old Bailey 7–13 Dec. Wilkes Session 16/1: John Miller. I and four or five more went to go to do a jew ladies; to break the house open. Question. What is that a cant term to break a house open? Miller. Yes.
1789		G. Parker Life’s Painter 136: I was wipe-priging, we made a regular stall for a tick and reader, but the cull was up to us, and we couldn’t do him.
1791		‘Highway-man’s Flash Song’ in Confessions of Thomas Mount 20: Then to the inside passengers / Straightway did we repair, / To do them of their lowr, / It was our only care.
1832		Berks. Chron. 3 Mar. 4/3: They had many things in view and one in particular. I asked them what that was; they said a ‘super chovey’ at Hungerford (i.e. a silversmith’s) which they could do before they came back .
1838		Dickens Oliver Twist (1966) 188: Now, my dear, about that crib at Chertsey; when is it to be done, Bill, eh?
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 70: You knows, Buck, as well as I do, that we leads the life of dogs. Arn’t we all on us spotted (marked) here? and ain’t the Bobbies at our heels directly we stirs a foot, so that we can’t even do a kingsman (silk handkerchief) in a day, let alone a skin or a soup (a purse or watch)?
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 12/1: Legs had [...] been doing a crib the night previous.
1879		‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ in Macmillan’s Mag. (London) XL 503: I have got a place cut and dried. Will you come and do it?
1885		M. Davitt Leaves from a Prison Diary I 116: We sometimes [...] make good use of this dodge [i.e. the fake fit] when a number of us go to ‘do’ a chapel.
1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 172: If ‘business’ is brisk, and there is a good deal ‘doing,’ the public is naturally mulcted much more than during lean years.
1910		H. Hapgood Types From City Streets 49: The thief [...] is ‘on the level’ with his pals, and is consistent and honest in his attempt to ‘do’ the respectable world.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 84: If he can do good to those that he formerly Did so successfully.
1930		D. Mackenzie Hell’s Kitchen 196: Most certainly I should have liked to have ‘done’ Maiden Erlegh.
1939		V. Davis Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 196: I was going to ‘do’ the Old Man’s house.
1959		A. Sillitoe ‘Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner’ Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1960) 27: Another pal of ours who’d done a factory office about six months before.
1966		P. Willmott Adolescent Boys of East London (1969) 28: Sometimes we do a job, do a warehouse, nick a load of fags.
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 36: It was a good time to do the shop I could open any peter, and I’ve done hundreds since.
1984		‘Derek Raymond’ He Died with His Eyes Open 132: An ex boy-friend of mine, he did one of your trucks not a long while back.
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 36: Did a sweet shop, took the glass, climbed in the window.
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] The bloke recognised us as the lads who’d done his shop before.
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 8: Started doing the payrolls and that until they fucked it all up with CCTV and that.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] Harry came to Sydney and did a couple of banks.

(c) (UK Und.) to counterfeit, to forge; thus do a queer half-quid/screen, to counterfeit a half-guinea coin or banknote.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 236: do: a term used by smashers; to do a queer half quid, or a queer screen, is to utter a counterfeit half-guinea, or a forged bank-note.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

(a) to dispose of, to squander, to waste, to destroy.

1696		G. Granville She-Gallants II i: Vaun. I'll write her a Letter by the Penny-Post, that shall give such a Character of him [i.e. a rival lover]as shall infallibly do his business.
1869		J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 414: Yes, sir, it was horse-betting that did my business.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 28 Apr. 6/1: [We] occasionally kick ourselves for being such idiots as to ‘do’ our money.
1912		Sport (Adelaide) 13 July 14/3: They Say [...] That Mum caused jealousy when she left the dance with her Mark Foy. Little Bill has done his chance.
1919		C.J. Dennis ‘Red Robin’ in Chisholm (1951) 123: I’m longin’ for a breather, for I’ve done my nerve a lot.
1951		(con. 1941) E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves 191: I’m in it with you — and I don’t care if I do my stripes!
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 31: If a bloke’s going to do his roll, I like him to do it on me so’s we both get some fun out of it.
1989		R.G. Barrett Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 153: I also done $500 on that rotten horse of yours.
1998		J. Hoskison Inside 25: I know people who do five grand a week on ‘crack’.
1999		P. Temple Black Tide (2012) [ebook] The bugger got twenty grand hisself from the old girl. Must’ve done that dough pretty smart.

(b) to place a bet, to wager.

1869

Man about Town 23 Oct. 55/3: So I backed them, at various odds, for a ‘place’ and with a ‘start’—and very satisfactory results. Done—in ponies? Done and done [...] In ponies! Would it had been monkeys.

(c) to honour a promissory note.

1875		Wagga Wagga Advertiser (NSW) 23 Oct. 4/2: . If the Honorable Charlie were hard-up [...] wished to do a bill, [...] Bob was the accommodating friend who, to use the expression in vogue among the money lending fraternity and its victims, ‘jumped on his back’.
1894		G.A. Sala Things I Have Seen II 43: He ‘did’ the bill, eventually, and remarkably stiff interest he charged.

(d) to squander one’s money; usu. with ...one’s cheque/dough.

1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Jan. 5/3: All my ‘sugar’ was done, and they offered me 2 to 1 in thousands. I took £500 to £200, being my last ‘bob,’ and looked upon it as finding the money.
1903		A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 184: After what he’s done he’s worth keepin’ sweet for another night, when he’ll probably drop for almost any amount.
1934		C. Drew ‘Shakespeare Harry’s Runner’ in Bulletin 27 June 50/2: ‘I wouldn’t like to see you do your money cold’.
1944		A. Marshall These Are My People (1957) 143: You keep going till you do your cheque.
1949		L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 3: A kid like you ought to be at the pitchers [...] instead of wanting to do his dough on the nags.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 71: She was always doing her money cold on the donks.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 46: The day he did two grand on a non-starter at the Tealeaf.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 9: Now these very same guys do all their shillings on charlie.
2000		R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] You won’t be crying crocodile tears if you do your money.

(e) to hand over, usu. money.

c.1950

K. Howard Small Time Crooks 35: I c’n do ya five grand an’ quit, Donovan. I guess I’ve had it fer ’Frisco anyways.

(a) to eat or drink, usu. with the relevant food or drink attached, e.g. do a couple of pints, do a burger .

1849		Sam Sly 31 Mar. 2/2: Ned, the bricklayer, not to do his seven pints before breakfast.
1861		Bell’s Life in Sydney 18 May 3/3: [He] betook himself to Bottomley's Temple of Bacchus [...] There he ‘did’ Bass No 3, October brewing in triplicate.
1862		Mayhew & Binny Criminal Prisons of London 5: ‘I say, Curly, will you do a top of reeb (pot of beer),’ one costermonger may say to the other.
1873		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Little Mr. Bouncer 40: I vote we do some bitters. My throat’s rather dry.
1880		E.J. Milliken ‘Cad’s Calendar’ in Punch Almanack n.p.: Pancake day. Don’t like ’em-flabby, tough, / Rayther do a pennorth o’ plum-duff.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 25 July 7/1: They turned into a room before entering that in which the Commission was sitting and ‘did’ a couple of whiskeys.
1886		Sporting Times 24 Apr. 1/4: How have we four done a magnum before the soup is on the table?
1887		Illawarra Mercury (Aus.) 4 Aug. n.p.: The Bulli gentleman, who knew his way about pretty well, and who felt that he could do a ‘long sleever’ himself, led the Civic Father into a hotel (we will not say which one).
1903		J. Furphy Such Is Life 282: An’ now I feel like I could do a bit o’ dinner - unless you got any objections?
1905		Sporting Times 15 Apr. 2/3: My new bit-o’-skirt in the clear-starch suburb is playin’ me false or you’ve done the beer!
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Dec. 42/4: ‘’Er, mate. You c’d do a drink, I s’pose?’ ‘Try me,’ responded the Duke, gratefully.
1919		Northern Territory Times & Gaz. (Darwin) 19 Apr. 4/2: I know you all could do a pot — and, blime! so could I!
1949		R. Park Poor Man’s Orange 80: Gawd, I could do a cuppa.
1972		Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 2: do – general, all-purpose action verb: Let’s do a few beers.
1982		W. Safire What’s The Good Word? 304: If I do too much brew, I’ll get wicked-faced, boot, and maybe even pass.
1990		R. Campbell Sweet La-La Land (1999) 49: Let’s do breakfast and then let’s go do doo-doo and then let’s go do the ba-ba-ba beach.
1998		R.G. Barrett Goodoo Goodoo 132: ‘Let’s do breakfast.’ ‘Can you give me fifteen minutes?’.
2002		D. Flusfeder Gift 104: Vegetarians don’t do ham too much.
2009		J. Joso Soothing Music for Stray Cats 67: The thing is I do ‘do’ fats, so it was a bit irritating.

(b) (Aus./US, also do off) to smoke.

1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Dec. 2/2: The head of the adjoining house was doing a cigar on his balcony.
1972		E. Shrake Strange Peaches 208: We did off with the Torpedo and then sat staring at television for a few minutes.

(c) to serve, to make available, e.g. of accommodation, food and/or drink.

1889		J.K. Jerome Three Men in a Boat 11: He said they would do him for the whole week at two pounds five.
1892		‘’Arry in ’Arrygate’ in Punch 24 Sept. 133/3: Dunsing, the Boss at ‘The Crown,’ does yer proper.
1910		Wodehouse Psmith in the City (1993) 22: She could ‘do’ it at seven and sixpence per week ‘for him’ [...] and that included lights.
1942		‘A List of Briticisms’ in AS XVII:1 Feb. 5/2: To treat, to tend to someone’s needs.
1984		‘Derek Raymond’ He Died with His Eyes Open 76: It’s rough in there, but they, like, do a bird for a geezer.
1989		(con. 1950s–60s) in G. Tremlett Little Legs 88: Do you do brown ale?

(d) of an artist, to depict (on canvas).

1902

H. Hapgood Spirit of the Ghetto 271: The conditions for such a significant art are ripe, and it may find its master in one or another of the young men who are passionately ‘doing’ Hester Street.

(e) (US drugs) to affect.

1946

Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 100: Tea don’t do you that way.

(f) (drugs) to consume a given drug, e.g. do a line.

1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 13: You wanna do again?
1970		D. Mitchell Thumb Tripping (1971) 20: They’re doing speed today.
1976		R. Sabbag Snowblind (1978) 31: One night we were at Le Club doing poppers.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 32: I did mescaline last night.
1985		(con. 1969–70) D. Bodey F.N.G. (1988) 95: Let’s do a bowl while we’re waiting.
1989		(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 80: Do you think it’s all the coke I’ve been doing?
1990		(con. 1930s–60s) H. Huncke Guilty of Everything (1998) 229: I wasn’t doing drugs at that point.
1993		T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 216: I don’t remember. I was doing some Demerol.
1999		T. Dorsey Florida Roadkill 11: They did two lines at the docks.
2000		Guardian Guide 1–6 Jan. 44: They ‘wouldn’t dream of doing coke in front of the children’.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 232: Av never done heroin before.
2002		D. Flusfeder Gift 191: Jerry did not do drugs.
2004		R.G. Barrett Rosa Marie’s Baby (2013) [ebook] Snort a few lines of coke, drop a tab of acid and do a bit of crystal meth.
2008		Sun. Times (S.Afr.) 27 Jan. 24: People were doing cocaine all over the place.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 76: She’d done at least one line in the ladies’ room.
2017		A. Parks Bloody January 11: ‘Let’s do another, eh?’ [...] She was a pro, could roll a joint in seconds flat.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 251: Reggie took another hit. He hadn’t done coke in a long time.

(g) of a sport or hobby, to engage in; thus ext. to any experience.

1962		M.K. Joseph Pound of Saffron 26: ‘Do a flick this evening?’ ‘What’s on?’.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 231: You can’t do bars and monogamy at the same time.
1999		Guardian Rev. 12 Nov. 2: I was puny, timid. I didn’t do weights until I was 17.
2000		T. Blacker Kill Your Darlings 258: He didn’t do books, he said.
2000		Indep. on Sun. Real Life 9 Jan. 5: My ex-partner doesn’t do the cold – she complains about the wind-chill.
2000		Indep. on Sun. Real Life 6 Feb. 3: They’re the next thing for men who’ve ‘done’ the ID bracelet.

(a) to serve a sentence in prison; usu. in phrs., e.g. do life, do five years.

1856		Age (Melbourne) 13 Dec. 5/2: Thomas H. Lewis (with half-a-dozen aliases) was about as bad a man as any within the whole Penal Establishment. An old lag from the otherside [he] found himself suddenly at Pentridge.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 79/2: The ‘molls’ had brought our bags [...] and placed them in charge of the old woman, with whom they lived while we were ‘doing’ our porritch and kail business in ‘stur’.
1869		J.C. Parkinson Places and People 228: He had come out of that jail from ‘doing’ nine months.
1874		‘A.P.’ [Arthur Pember] Mysteries and Miseries 258: Lame Pete has recently ‘done six months’ in Brooklyn.
1880		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 31 Jan. 14/3: I remember talking to a young villain in the Tombs, who to ‘do’ six months.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Feb. 7/3: Why, old man, whether I come back or not, it’s the biggest patch I ever struck since the morning that d— French sentry made me [...] plank down the swag I was shunting from the palace at Canton. I did five years for that job.
1895		‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘The Man Who Was Away’ in Man from Snowy River (1902) 63: He’s done six months in Goulburn gaol — he’s got six more to do.
1905		Marvel III:63 20: I’ll lay five bob if he had had a shot at burgling any other place he would be doing five years now!
1916		J. Lait ‘Charlie the Wolf’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 57: Then he has to live up to his reputation or be a heel, an’ a kid would rather do life than weaken after he’s notorious.
1924		S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 24: Me bruvver was topped; me cousin was sent to the chair in the States; me uncle’s doin’ life.
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 17: Long enough to’ve been in Wandsworth and done a carpet.
1944		C. Himes ‘Let Me at the Enemy’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 39: Looks like a prison camp where I did six months.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 42: George did three years, and when he got out he refused to do any more pushing.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 41: He was doing a three [...] for g.b.h.
1970		G.F. Newman Sir, You Bastard 71: [He] went back inside to do four of six years for burglary.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 110: He turned out to be doing five to life in Quentin for armed robbery.
1999		Guardian G2 24 Nov. 2: For gang members the way out is not necessarily in a coffin or doing 25 to life.
2010		L. Berney Gutshot Straight [ebook] He was doing a dozen years behind a first-degree manslaughter charge.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] He knew guys who did thirty years.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 32: Ronnie was doing five years [...] on a burglary charge.

(b) to pass a period of time, other than in prison.

1906		C. Fowler letter 18 Feb. in Tomlinson Rocky Mountain Sailor (1998) 16: I have nearly three years to ‘do,’ yet, and will probably do it all on this Station.
1922		‘J.H. Ross’ Mint (1955) 93: Snaggle [...] is a man of twenty-four, resilient and knowledgeable, who did six years in the army.
1962		A. Wesker Chips with Everything II xi: He’s staying behind, you know? I reckon they’ll make him do another two weeks for this.