thing, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

thing n.

1. a person; esp. someone whose name one does not know or who is unimportant.

c.1290		St Lucy (Laud) 150 in Early South Eng. Legendary I 105: ?wan he ne mihte þis clene þing [i.e. St. Lucy] ouer-come mid al is lore [OED].
c.1367–86		Langland Piers Plowman (C) XV line 305: Then are hit puyre poore thynges in purgatorie or in hell.
a.1440		Eglamour (Camden Soc.) 616: Seyde Organata that swete thynge, Y schalle geve the a gode golde rynge, Wyth a fulle ryche stone [F&H].
a.1536		Tyndale Works II 120: [Tyndale speaks of Christ as] ‘a thing soft and gentle’ [F&H].
1540		D. Lyndsay Satyre of Thrie Estaits (1604) 13: Commend me to that sweitest thing, And present hir with this same Ring.
1577		Misogonus in Farmer (1906) IV i: It is impossible that this silly thing should either cog or lie.
c.1597		Shakespeare Henry IV Pt 1 III iii: This house is turned bawdy-house [...] And for womanhood, Maid Marian may be the deputy’s wife of the ward to thee. Go, you thing, go.
c.1620		Fletcher Women Pleased IV iii: My valiant boy; do not look so fiercely on me, Thou wilt fright me with thy face; come busse againe Chick, Smile in my face you mad thing.
1623		Webster Devil’s Law-Case IV ii: May it please the Court, I am but a yong thing, And was drawne arsie varsie into the businesse.
1632		R. Brome Covent-Garden Weeded I i: cock.: Is not this your daughter? cros.: All the Shee-things I have: and would I were well rid of her too.
1639		R. Davenport New Tricke to Cheat the Divell III ii: How now bold huswife, baggage, peevish Thing, rude, disobedient, apish, and perverse.
1664		C. Cotton Virgil Travestie (1765) Bk IV 70: Dost thou believe, thou puling Thing, / That dead Folks care for whimpering.
1675		Woman Turn’d Bully III i: It’s a shame for a man to engage with such a little young Thing.
1681		Otway Soldier’s Fortune I ii: Now to make [...] my thing called a husband, himself to assist his poor wife.
1696		D. Manley Lost Lover II i: ori.: ’Tis my Lady Junket’s Visiting day. [...] bel.: O, that old Gossiping thing.
1709		R. Steele Tatler No. 22: The best humour’d impertinent Thing in the World.
1716		J. Addison Drummer Prologue: A raw young thing, who dares not tell his name.
1733		C. Coffey Boarding-School 20: I’ll make you smart, / Before we part, / You paltry Thing.
1748		Spy on Mother Midnight I 21: I think my Neighbours very hard upon a poor young Thing.
1756		Memoirs of an Oxford Scholar 79: I became acquainted with a pretty young thing, an Apprentice to a Milliner.
1767		‘Andrew Barton’ Disappointment I iii: He calls me his pet, his dove, his ‘poor t’ing.’.
1798		T. Morton Speed the Plough II iii: Poor thing!
1806		G. Colman Yngr John Bull II ii: A snug thing in the country.
1815		D. Humphreys Yankey in England 28: She artfully carried the little child. [...] It was a darling little thing.
1821		A.N. Royall Letters from Alabama 15 July 230: The dear little things were in the nursery.
1834		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) 15 Mar. 2/2: A lot of things that’s [...] insulting females as they pass.
1835		‘Thomas Brown’ Fudge Family in England 1: Who d’ye think we’ve got here? — quite reformed from the giddy, / Fantastic young thing, that once made such a noise.
1848		Thackeray Vanity Fair I 43: Amelia began to give way to [...] tears which, we have said, was one of the defects of this silly little thing.
1864		G.A. Sala Quite Alone I 263: She was a vulgar little thing.
1878		H.B. Stowe Poganuc People 92: That air Almiry Smith is a stuck-up thing.
1888		W.B. Churchward Blackbirding In The South Pacific 36: I’m not going to be cheated out of my dollars by a thing like you!
1896		Tresor & LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] Among My Knick-knacks 🎵 Some male things were disporting in a not far distant spot.
1896		E. Pugh Man of Straw 93: I don’t believe you’re a bit pleased at my good fortune, you dear, stupid old thing.
1901		‘Miles Franklin’ My Brilliant Career 151: I hate that thing. His presence was detestable to me.
1911		A. Bennett Card (1974) 101: The little thing must have spent a part of the previous afternoon preparing it.
1912		Truth (Wellington) 6 Apr. 6/5: A nice young thing called Gertrude Barber.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 21: Says he found a sweet young thing down there. Photo girl he calls her.
1923		Lucille Hegamin ‘Chattanooga Man’ 🎵 Men are men up in Maine, / But in Chattanooga, / I met one sweet thing.
1929		J.B. Priestley Good Companions 302: She’s a queer little thing.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 363: He saw [...] Young Rocky leading a baby-faced thing. He moved to the edge of the rectangular dance floor, and watched the couples pass.
1936		(con. 1830s–60s) ‘Miles Franklin’ All That Swagger 369: Its bright young things displayed their fine physique on the democratic beaches which made Sydney a paradise.
1938		W. Watson Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day (2000) 121: ‘The dear things,’ she thought sentimentally.
1943		in T. Harrisson Mass-Observation War Factory: Report 4: A queer, old-fashioned looking little thing, with glasses and a rather high, childlike voice.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 132: In comes a guy and a pretty thing.
1958		E. Dundy Dud Avocado (1960) 254: A rather wild young thing apparently.
1965		W. King ‘The Game’ Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 304: Hey, mamma, you putty thang ... shorr look foine.
1976		P. Conroy Great Santini (1977) 238: Then your father turned up. The handsomest thing you have ever seen in your life.
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 49: A paunchy tycoon [...] was frantically groping a flighty young thing half his age.
1989		R. Dahl Rhyme Stew (1990) 72: I think you might enjoy a fling / With some curvaceous little thing.
1996		P. Beatty White Boy Shuffle 2: The fine young black thing you drooled over in eighth-grade gym class.
1999		Observer Mag. 20 June 33: His clientele are the rich young things of south Delhi.
2000		W. Shaw Westsiders 139: Reb Spikes [...] remembered how Hollywood’s brightest young things would ‘drive up in long limousines.’.
2022		Digga D. ‘Hold It Down’ 🎵 So I'm with a ting in some council flats / Makin’ squares out of cling while she counts the racks.

2. in sexual senses.

(a) seduction, sexual intercourse.

c.1534		Bourchier Huon of Burdeux III 725: I haue so great desyre that ye shulde do ye thynge, the whiche of right ought to be done bytweene man and woman.
1600		Dr. Dodypoll in Bullen III (1884) I i: What thing is love? for sure I am it is a thing. It is a prick, it is a thing, it is a prettie, prettie thing; It is a fire, it is a cole, whose flame creeps in at every hoale.
1632		Massinger City-Madam III i: For marriage, and the other thing too. The commoditie is the same.
1665		‘Merry Mans Resolution’ Pepys Ballads (1987) III 185: Those Lasses that kiss well loves the tother thing.
1691		‘Country-Man’s Kalender’ in Ebsworth Bagford Ballads (1878) I 186: Tom gives his Love Sue [...] A Bodkin, with Kisses, and t’other thing too.
1705		‘Toothless Bride’ in Ebsworth Bagford Ballads (1878) I 27: [I long] to be at the Game, ... let me enjoy, The thing without delay.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 197: Because he could not give ’em the Thing they did lack ... they threaten’d to Geld him.
1731		Prisoners Opera 22: Accept of my Hand, let me be your Gallant, / I am sure you can grant me the thing that I want.
1793		Bacchanalian Mag. 104: He does the thing so gentle.
1842		‘Sarah’s A Blowen’ Nobby Songster 18: A covey was singing, / One day in the street, / Young Sarah’s a blowen: / Vot does the thing neat.
1851		Manchester Spy (NH) 2 Aug. n.p.: He called one lucky night for him, / And did the thing, and ‘slid’ .
1924		Rosa Henderson ‘Do That Thing’ 🎵 You can’t sing, / But you don’t have to when you do that thing!
1945		(con. 1928) R. Westerby Mad in Pursuit 105: A fear of the Thing itself. The Thing made softies out of girls, made them give in.
2005		H. Mantel Beyond Black 155: Some people say it’s worse to get into a thing with a punter— A thing? Not a thing, not a sex thing. But a relationship.

(b) the vagina; thus by meton. a prostitute (see cites 1597, 1861).

c.1597		Shakespeare Henry IV Pt 1 III iii: I am no thing to thank God on [...] I am an honest man’s wife.
c.1610		‘The Westminster Whore’ in Bold (1979) 238: Madam P. hath a thing at her breech, / Sucks up all the scad of the town.
1632		R. Brome Covent-Garden Weeded I i: O Madge how I do long thy thing to ding didle ding.
1656		Mennis & Smith et al. ‘In Praise of his Mistresses Beauty’ Wit and Drollery 28: Her Belly Tun-like to behold, Her bush doth all excell, The thing that’s by, all men extol’d, Is wider then a Well.
1674		T. Duffet Empress of Morocco Act III: Doxie! Doxie! O thou hast a tender thing!
1680		M. Stevenson Wits Paraphras’d 47: My Thing’s my own; while no one sees, / Sure I may use it as I please.
1691		‘Advice to Bachelours’ in Ebsworth Merry Drollery Compleat (1875) 33: Some raw fruit give her, to open her liver, / Her stomack, and the thing.
1707		‘My Thing is My Own’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) I 194: I am a tender young Maid have been courted by many [...] My thing is my own, and I’ll keep it so still. / Yet other young lasses may do what they will.
1720		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy VI 293: Says he ’tis a thing that has never a handle, / ’Tis hid in the Dark, and it lies pretty low.
1732		Delightful Adventures of Honest John Cole 22: Let his Wife be full brisk, / Bound, caper, and frisk, / Till she foams at the Thing that’s below, Sir.
1732		Harlot’s Progress 8: [spec. a maidenhead] And Bent—y always sold a Thing / For as much Money as twould bring.
1740		‘Sou Ma Quang’ Chinese Tale 15: Sapho [sic] contracting her wide Thing.
c.1750		Delights for Young Men and Maids n.p.: My Lady has a thing most rare. / Round about it grows much hair.
1762		Bridges Homer Travestie (1764) I 124: He scorn’d thy — as well as mine, / And to us both preferr’d a thing, / That smells of sea-weed, and old ling.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Thing. a Womans Commodity.
1790		Banquet of Wit 62: ‘It was lucky indeed that the young ladies escaped, observed a wicked wit [...] but your hear, my dear madam, that all their things were burnt’.
a.1796		‘Green Grow the Rashes’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) I 261: Mistress Mary cow’d her thing, / Because she wad be gentle, O.
1834		‘The Little Black Thing’ Flash Chaunter 39: The little black thing, / Set on a cushion, / It opened it’s mouth, / And had ne’er a tooth in.
1845		T. Rowlandson Pretty Little Games (1872) Plate iii: But she who all his arts defied, / Pull’d up and shew’d her sexes pride: / A thing all shagg’d about with hair, / So much it made old Satan stare.
c.1850		Peeping Tom mag. No. 4 13: [cartoon caption of men staring up a dancer’s skirt] Peeping Tom at the opening of a new piece. — ‘Well, I declare! it’s the Sweetest *Thing* I ever saw!’.
1861		Bell’s Life in Sydney 1June 3/1: The illegitimate child of a thing called Eliza Davis, cohabiting with a Chinaman.
1880		Pearl Nov. [ebook] ‘Things I Don’t Like To See’ [...] Nor I don't like to see, though some think it a treat. / A young woman scratching her thing in the street.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) I 46: ‘That’s your thing, ’ said I [...] ‘My thing, what’s that?’ ‘The hole at the bottom of your belly,’ said I.
1897		in Pearl 1 July 36: She sugared her thing, / Both outside and in, / And then had it sucked by a boy.
c.1900		‘Ramrod’ Nocturnal Meeting 24: Harry’s hand tastes [...] as if it had been up your naughty thing.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 726: My aunt Mary has a thing hairy.
1931		Lonnie Johnson [song title] She’s Dangerous With That Thing.
1945		‘Old Maid Sat by the Fire’ in Mess Songs & Rhymes of the RAAF 32: He made one spring at the old maid’s thing, / And by Christ, did he shake it.
1948		in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 182: I got a girl across the lane, / Hair on her pussy like a horse’s mane, / I got a gal an’ she’s got a thing / That fits my peter like a diamond ring.
1958		Southern & Hoffenberg Candy (1970) 112: The stool had slipped or pushed up into her jelly-box, right up inside it, taking all the clothes with it [...] right up into her thing.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 187: The pulsation of her ‘thing’ and its heavy bush of hair.
1976		M. Braly False Starts 238: Did he put his male thing into your female thing?
1978		D. Marechera House of Hunger (2013) [ebook] [A]t last he pulled his penis out of her raw thing and stuffed it back into his trousers.
1986		S. King It (1987) 801: She knew that girls had different things.
1998		B. Robinson Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman 68: ‘Freda Pew hasn’t got black hair, you cunt.’ ‘I’m talking about on her thing.’ ‘What thing?’ ‘Her clump.’.
2000		G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 195: If that was my woman? I’d just go ahead and tell her that I planned to split that thing like an ax to an oak.
2008		T.I. ‘Whatever You Like’ 🎵 Ya thing get so wet, an’ hit so right Let me put this big boy in yo life.
2012		G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 110: I hit that thing right [...] She got some good pussy on her, man.

1600		Dr. Dodypoll in Bullen III (1884) I i: What thing is love? for sure I am it is a thing. It is a prick, it is a thing, it is a prettie, prettie thing; It is a fire, it is a cole, whose flame creeps in at every hoale.
1617		Middleton & Rowley Fair Quarrel V i: chouch.: (Sings.) I say, thy bride is a bronstrops. trim.: (Sings.) And knows the thing that men wear in their slops.
1622		Rowley & Shakespeare Birth of Merlin (1662) III i: Oh beast, wast thou got a childe with a short thing too?
a.1633		Donne Satire VI in Chalmers Eng. Poets (1810) V 160/2: I found him thoroughly taught In curing burns. His thing had more scars Than T... himself.
1653		Urquhart (trans.) Rabelais I x: Madam, do you cut little children’s things? Were his cut off, he would be then Monsieur Sans-queue, the curtailed master.
1661		‘Mine Own Sweet Honey-Bird-Chuck’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) V 29: I’ll put a hot thing in thy belly.
1684		Rochester (attrib.) Sodom III iii: Come ’t is a harmless thing, draw near and try / You will desire no other Death to dye.
1691		‘Womens Delight’ in Ebsworth Merry Drollery Compleat (1875) 46: And ever she cry’d, O turn, / O turn thee unto me, / Thou has the thing I have not, / A little above the knee.
1701		Cibber Love Makes a Man II i: Say he should have a Thing shap’d like a Child, you can make nothing of it, but a Taylor.
1709		N. Ward Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 284: As she was stroaking his dirty Hide, from Head to Heel, upstarts a third Person [...] that gave the good Woman such a Bang on the Wrist, that [...] she [...] cry’d, Well Jeff, I am now assur’d ’tis thee, for look, look, see the poor thing knows me too.
1721		‘The Sick Wife’ in Pleasures of Coition iv: I had the finest Thingum for ye – / Another time I’ll find. / Nay, stay, cries she, I prithee; why / ’Tis that’s the Thing I lack for ye.
1723		Rape of the Bride 20: Marriage, cry’d she, I understand, / ’Tis taking a great Thing in Hand.
c.1731		‘You Fair, Who Play Tricks’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) V 197: And for G--’s sake take care to grease well the Machine. / For your Thing is so stiff, and my Hole is so small.
1740		Dialogue Between a Married Lady and a Maid III: Philander took out his Thing, which was now grown soft.
1748		Spy on Mother Midnight 28: Keep it in a due Position, and give it its proper Motion; and, I think, in that lyes the Beauty of the Thing, and the Pleasure of the Use of it.
c.1750		Delights for Young Men and Maids n.p.: She took a Thing and put it too [sic], / It was so limber it would not do.
1787		Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies 123: She never takes a thing in hand [...] but her antagonist is sure to shrink from his purpose.
1810		G. Cruikshank ‘The Archduchess Maria Louisa going to take her nap’ [cartoon] My dear Nap your bed accomodations are very indifferent! Too short by a Yard! I wonder how Josephino put up with such things even as long as she did.
1821		‘Miscellaneous’ Fancy I IV 102: I [a prostitute] never saw the colour of his money in all my born days, nor the colour of any thing he has (a laugh).
1833		‘The Cock In Breeches’ Regular Thing, And No Mistake 57: Every morn when she awoke, / About this naughty thing would joke [...] The old maid said it was a shame, / And that the old man was much to blame, / To let the Cock in Breeches stand! / She swore she’d take the thing in hand!
1835		‘Meat and Gravy’ Fanny Hill’s Bang-up Reciter 19: Then he pull’d out his something, and in the bright drain / He wash’d and sloos’d it again and again.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 4 Mar. 3/3: The ladies showed off their parts admirably, and kept all things alive.
1845		T. Rowlandson Pretty Little Games (c.1872) Plate iv: A larger thing would give more pleasure, / She always loves to have full measure. / And who for greater joys do hunt / Than rising bubbies and a C—t.
c.1850		Peeping Tom (London) 42 165: [cartoon caption] But, soon aroused from Pleasure’s fitful dream, / She finds things ‘not exactly’ what they seem.
1881		Loves of Venus 38: ‘You don’t know that thing as well as I do [...] It only wants a little coaxing [...] take it in hand and help yourself’.
1881		Sins of the Cities of the Plain 10: Put your thing up, I suppose you mean.
1889		C. Deveureux Venus in India I 76: I believed that I should marry, and when I did, I believed that my husband would put his ‘thing’ into my ‘little thing.’.
1890		C. Pearl in Blatchford Memoirs (1983) 29: She applied her mouth to the drooping thing.
1901		Female Lust 8: ‘Oh my, what a thing he has and how it stretched me almost to bursting’.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 726: He puts his thing long into my aunt Marys hairy etcetera.
1929		The Hokum Boys ‘Somebody’s Been Using That Thing’ 🎵 He used to be a high-stepper / But now he can’t walk at all. / Somebody’s been using that thing, / Somebody’s been using that thing.
1936		Lil Johnson ‘Press My Button, Ring My Bell’ 🎵 Just put your hot dog in my bun, / And I’ll have that thing, / That thing-a-ling.
1941		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 5: His prick wouldn’t stiffen, / And the size of the thing was infernal.
1954		(con. 1920s–30s) J.O. Killens Youngblood (1956) 106: Beef stake, poke steak / make a little gravy / Your thing, my thing / Make a little baby.
1954		D. Wasington ‘Big Long Slidin’ Thing’ 🎵 Tell me where is my daddy with that big long slidin’ thing?
1964		J. Baldwin Blues for Mister Charlie 15: We’re going to cut that big, black thing off of you.
1971		F. Hilaire Thanatos 53: ‘Oh, Yancy,’ he gushed, ‘you gorgeous man. Let me see that marvelous thing of yours.’.
1986		M. Petit Peacekeepers 71: ‘Long schlong!’ Archie whooped. [...] ‘I ain’t nothin’ but a love machine,’ Ross began to sing. ‘Pull my thing and watch me sing!’.
1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 168: He’s got this problem with the tip of his thing [...] It hurts too much for him to have sex.
2000		Indep. Rev. 23 May 4: Her old mucker Edward VII ‘had a very, very, very tiny thing’.
2001		(con. 1990s) in J. Miller One of the Guys 172: ‘They run trains on them or either have the girl suck their thang’.
2004		J. McCourt ‘Vilja de Tanquay Exults’ in Queer Street 293: Mum had too, / A thing for yanks [...] / So did more poor bent dad and a big thing too / One that must have given no end of relief / To yanks and tommies.
2008		R. Price Lush Life 172: The six-year-old boy [...] with his little thing in his hands .
2012		J. Fagan Panopticon (2013) 313: Chop his thing off [...] do the world a favour!
2016		Mother Jones July/Aug. 🌐 An inmate ‘whipped his thing out and was playing with himself right in front of her’.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 16: ‘One of them girls is gonna cut your thing off and mail it to you’.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 183: I couldn’t even see my dick [...] I was like Uncle what’s happened to my tings, is it ever gonna be big again.

(d) a venereal disease.

1837

‘I Have Kissed the Biggest Whore’ in Flash Olio in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 190: If you’ve got the thing, beware! / Or to Eady [a well-known VD specialist] I must bear, / With a great blue boar!

(e) the buttocks; usu. in phr. shake that thing.

1925		Papa Charlie Jackson ‘Shake That Thing’ 🎵 Now down in Georgia, got a dance that’s new / There ain’t nothing to it, it’s easy to do / They call it ‘Shake That Thing,’ ah, shake that thing / I’m gettin’ sick ‘n’ tired of tellin’ you to shake that thing.
1928		Pine Top Smith ‘Pine Top’s Boogie Woogie’ 🎵 When I say git it, I want you to shake that thing.
1936		Lil Hardin Armstrong ‘It’s Murder’ 🎵 He’s the guy who’s got that swing, / But when he shakes that thing, hmmm, that’s murder!
a.1955		‘Pimping Sam’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 148: A young whore like you, shaking that thing, / Thinks a man like me is everything.
1968		Bob Dylan ‘Tiny Montgomery Says Hello!’ 🎵 Tiny Montgomery’s gonna shake that thing.
2001		(con. 1929) N. Tosches Where Dead Voices Gather (ms.) 137: Brown talks of blindsiding his woman, of [...] ‘spendin’ her jack’, tells of taking her to church, where she ‘began to shake that thing.’.

(f) in pl., the testicles.

1948

H. McCoy Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in Four Novels (1983) 222: I’m the one who’s got his things caught in this wringer, not you.

(g) (US) menstruation.

1966

(con. 1958) R. Farina Been Down So Long (1972) 164: ‘Hey, Piglet, where you been?’ [...] ‘Getting my thing. It always comes early when something exciting’s going on like this.’ [...] ‘Your thing, man?’ ‘My period.’.

3. (US) a non-specific descriptor, used when one either cannot or does not wish to use the correct term, e.g. Shall we do the coffee shop thing? I have to do the work thing.

[a.1661		‘The Rump Carbonado’d’ in Rump Poems and Songs (1662) ii 69: Lend me your ears, not cropt, and I’le sing / Of an hideous Monster, or Parliament thing].
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor II 84/2: We haven’t the same chance of ‘doing the thing’ as the merchants have. They can mix the coals up as they like for their customers, and sell them for best.
1905		‘Hugh McHugh’ You Can Search Me 62: ‘Dodey is always for the suds thing,’ Skinski chipped in. ‘But never to excess, never to excess.’.
1913–14		E. O’Neill The Web in Ten ‘Lost’ Plays (1995) 60: I’ve tried that job thing. I’ve looked fur decent work.
1931		D. Runyon ‘Romance in the Roaring Forties’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 42: You kidnap him to marry this red-headed thing.
1937		P. Hamilton Money With Menaces (1939) 31: I teed up three balls in succession, and saw them all go one after another into that beastly lake thing on the right.
1963		H.S. Thompson letter 1 Dec. in Proud Highway (1997) 424: The Kennedy thing merely underlined my thesis.
1970		J. Bouton Ball Four 107: [A] group that was into the Indian thing [...] chanting Hari Krishna Rama Rama, etc.
1980		A. Fugard Tsotsi 84: When you crawl you grunt like a dog thing.
1981		S. King Roadwork in Bachman Books (1995) 421: We got into a heavy drug thing.
1993		Dr Dre ‘Stranded on Death Row’ 🎵 But ain’t nuttin but a black thing bay-bee.
1999		Indep. 4 Nov. 11: I love this breakfast thing.
2005		P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 19: [She] would [...] so love to do the whole Australia thing.
2015		Guardian G2 3 July 6/1: ‘The Rita [Ora] thing was tasteless of me,’ he admits.

4. in derog. uses.

(a) (US) a male, occas. female, homosexual.

[1781		Hicky’s Bengal Gaz. 18-25 Aug. n.p.: That insignificant thing of the Epicene gender, Pigany Durgee [...] When nature Durgee’s clay was blending / Not knowing what the thing would end in / Whether a Female or a male].
1928		E. Milton To Kiss the Crocodile 142: ‘How I should have survived the summer without this dear thing, I don’t know.’ The dear thing was Roy.
1932		J.L. Kuethe ‘Johns Hopkins Jargon’ in AS VII:5 337: thing — an effeminate man; a pervert.
1941		‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 9 Aug. 9/8: i can’t understand, for the life of me, how those ‘things’ came to be [...] You see women in pants and men in skirts. Is the country going to the perverts?

(b) (Aus./N.Z. prison) a term of abuse, e.g. for an informer.

1978		G. Newbold ‘Social Organization of Prisons’ in dissertation U. Auckland 339: The Staunchie and the man with heart have their antitheses in the nomenclature of 188 the weak mug, the flea; the germ; the wonk; the thing; and numerous other expressly derogatory epithets.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Thing. A term of contempt applied to police informers, etc. Despite the apparent innocuousness of this term it is in fact one of the harshest forms of abuse.
1992		A. Duff One Night Out Stealing 155: He says, this is a Thing, and we don't like Things, says I your leader. Then he orders the Thing to be attacked [...] Jube the Thing.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 188/1: thing n. a person displaying socially unacceptable or ‘subhuman’ behaviour.

5. anything to which one cannot or does not wish to give a name.

[1841		Sporting Mag. Nov. 8: The Duke of Grafton’s Florence, 3 yrs, won A Fifty pound plate in a canter, beating [...] a thing called Creole [...] What business Creole and Jim Crow had in this company I am at a loss to conceive].
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 73: George, I wonder if you oughtn’t to take him aside and tell him about – Things! She blushed and lowered her eyes.
c.1930		N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 266: Later the coon things and the nigrah sounds were it.
1972		(con. 1950s) Jacobs & Casey Grease II iv: The guy was usin’ a thing [i.e. a condom], but it broke.
1974		G.V. Higgins Cogan’s Trade (1975) 9: I got this thing and all I got to do is do it and we get some very nice money.
1977		K. Gilbert Living Black 19: When I was moving out of the country I had to fill out this great taxation thing which said I was of Aboriginal descent.
1989		D. Waters Heathers [film script] Yeah... All right... We did a murder and that’s a crime, but this were like a suicide thing, y’know?
1997		L. Davies Candy 56: She told them also she’d come with some kind of thing and was vomiting a lot.
2000		Indep. Rev. 3 Mar. 13: We’ve got a bit of a thing going on here.
2012		M. McBride Frank Sinatra in a Blender [ebook] I used to front him money for this thing he had goin’ on.

6. an obsession, a preoccupation with (whether negative or positive), usu. as have a thing about

1934		E. Waugh Handful of Dust 32: I know we aren’t going. I’m not making a thing about it. I just thought it might be fun .
1936		‘Josphine Tey’ Shilling for Candles 135: ‘You got a ‘thing’ about astrology?’.
1960		J.D. Macdonald Slam the Big Door (1961) 70: It’s an ape thing [...] picking lice off its belly.
1965		L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 142: A Chicago newspaper columnist who is sort of [...] a Christ in Concrete, and he’s got a thing going: what’s decent, indecent.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 393: Gloria’s thing for older men smoothed the situation.
1981		Tom Petty ‘A Thing About You’ 🎵 Oh babe, I got a thing about you.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Hot-Prowl Rape-O’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 313: My mom was a redhead, and I never got over it. I got a thing for red gash.
2013		J. Stahl Bad Sex on Speed 30: My husband had a thing where he’d drop black beauties and touch himself. He wouldn’t eat dinner.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 65: [S]he had a bit of a thing for the young fellas, everyone knew she had a bit of a thing for the young fellas.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 37: He figured Donnie had a thing for her and that was at the root of his going apeshit.

7. one’s lifestyle, one’s opinion, personal stance etc; usu. as one’s own thing and in the phr. do one’s (own) thing

1937		Cab Calloway ‘That Man is Here Again’ 🎵 When that man begins to swing, / Everybody goes to town, / Oh, he has that certain thing / Makes you Suzy-Q, then you truck on down.
1961		Down Beat 2 Mar. 43: He’s been playing this way 15 years, and he’s got his own thing going.
1968		T. Wolfe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1969) 13: Thing was the major abstract word in the Haight-Ashbury, It could mean anything: isms, life styles, habits, leanings, causes, sexual organs.
1972		Milner & Milner Black Players 125: Now, like my friends, I have White and Black and my thing is much different from theirs.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 68: This young boy is maybe gonna [...] set up his own thing on that side of town.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines xx: We got a whole lotta things together.
1985		J. Wambaugh Secrets of Harry Bright (1986) 173: Crystal’s their thing. A lowlife drug.
1999		Indep. Mag. 25 Sept. 7: Every kid does their peer group thing, don’t they?
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 3: Like, it’s his big thing that we should all have some visible means of income.
2011		Observer Mag. 20 Feb. 20/2: I pre-warned the family that [...] the show wasn’t going to be their thing.

8. an argument, a fuss.

1930		E. Waugh Vile Bodies 109: Oh, all right [...] if you will make such a thing about it.
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 16: They’d got into a thing over an item that had somehow managed to get itself printed in the Journal.
1966		(con. 1958) R. Farina Been Down So Long (1972) 182: Instead of us going and having a huge thing over it, couldn’t you just manage to come because I’m asking you to?
1987		R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 41: ‘Some men would have made a thing.’ ‘Well, I would have made a thing — if I’d thought it would’ve worked.’.
1992		T. Williams Crackhouse 43: He and Joan had a thing [an argument], and he’s pissed off.

9. a relationship, usu. sexual.

1943		Chicago Trib. Graphic Section 26 Dec. 7/1: Jive Talk [...] Going Steady. [...] They’re a thing.
1950		K. Williams Diaries 1 Feb. 49: Lunched and tea with Moira, with whom Stanley is having a vague sort of thing.
1956		S. Selvon Lonely Londoners 57: Cap giving the impression that anytime Daniel want a little thing with she it would be all right.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 396: Red’s and Gloria’s thing lasted over a year.
1993		A. Rodriguez Spidertown (1994) 84: Face it, your thing with her ain’t gonna last.
2000		T. Blacker Kill Your Darlings 45: In fact, we had a bit of a thing for a while.
2010		K. Richards Life 236: I had a very strong thing with him from that first day.
2013		G. Crowe ‘Of Being Darker Than Light’ in ThugLit Feb. [ebook] They had a thing for each other that hadn’t come to fruition.

10. in drug uses.

(a) heroin, cocaine, marijuana, whatever is the drug one sells or consumes.

1971		R. Woodley Dealer 122: ‘And then you can worry about the PO-lice too much, throw coke away. [...] That’s happened to me. Not anymore. I got to know they’re coming for me before I throw my thing away’.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 21: Thing — Cocaine; Crack Cocaine; heroin; main drug interest at the moment.

(b) an addiction to heroin or another narcotic.

1971		D. Goines Dopefiend (1991) 60: Don’t worry about my thing, I can handle it.
1973		E. Droge Patrolman 168: The person who has a habit, a ‘thing’ [...] uses a set of ‘works’ or ‘gimmicks’ (hypodermic instruments) to ‘shoot up.’.

1968		N. Heard Howard Street 23: Here, go cop me three things off Cowboy.
1977		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Black Gangster (1991) 137: The fag is shootin’ ten to fifteen things every time.

(d) marijuana.

1999

T. Dorsey Florida Roadkill 236: Coleman: ‘Pot, grass, weed, dope, hemp, rope, thing, [...] . . .’.

11. (US black) a party.

1970		G. Scott-Heron Vulture (1996) 67: zinari give a l’il thing in his crib startin’ ’bout twelve.
a.1983		(con. early 1940s) M. Waters q. in R. Gordon Can’t Be Satisfied (2002) 32: I got big enough to start playing for the white things [. . . .]. A white dance, you could play a waltz all night long.

12. any activity one enjoys.

1972		O. Hawkins Ghetto Sketches 174: I plays when my Thang comes down on me.
1974		C. Loken Come Monday Morning 125: Sure, he gets his rocks off moppin’. Moppin’s his thing.
1999		Guardian Guide 4–10 Sept. 28: That sounds like my thing.
2000		Guardian Editor 21 Jan. 10: He was the only one to use his tongue in a screen kiss. Not my thing at all.

13. (US black) a thing of importance; usu. as it ain’t no thing, it is not important.

1980		J.L. Gwaltney Drylongso 224: Now, that is a blackfolks’ thing.
1988		NWA ‘Gangsta Gangsta’ 🎵 I don’t slang or bang / I just smoke motherfuckers like it ain’t no thang.
1991		L. Bing Do or Die (1992) xi: When you eleven years old and you get you a gun, you got to be a little shook up [...] Then, like I said, you get used it to — it ain’t no thing.
2003		Simon & Burns ‘Hot Shots’ Wire ser. 2 ep. 3 [TV script] It ain’t no thing, right?
2008		‘Grandmaster Flash’ Adventures 137: When she [record company executive Sylvia Robinson] shows us the recording studio, it's on [...] ‘You like what you see, Flash?’ Sylvia asks. ‘It’s a thing, I’ll most definitely give you that’ .
2012		G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 15: ‘Thank you, Red.’ ‘Ain’t no thing’.

14. (UK/US Black/gang) a gun, thus long thing, a shotgun.

1988		W.D. Myers Scorpions 79: ‘[H]ere the thing. Put it in your belt, man.’ Jamal took the shiny pistol.
2015		410 ‘Civilians’ 🎵 My ting kickin so footish.
2016		1011 ‘Next Up?’ 🎵 Back out my ting and make man swim.
2017		Harlem Spartans ‘Money & Beef’ 🎵 Had lengtings waving at man, gang / [...] / I Used to have a shotty looking long like Chan Kardash.
2018		Unknown T ‘Homerton B’ 🎵 Bang, the ting goes back in the jacket / Hope the clip or the spin’ make him backflip.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 49: Is it a proper ting fam? Not a rebore?
2023		Rayman & Blau Riker’s 66: ‘I need one of those things.’ [...] One of those things mean a weapon.

15. (W.I.) a girlfriend; thus any girl.

1995		Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 35: My ting a girlfriend (user stating claim).
2015		410 ‘Foolishness’ 🎵 Yeah,I rate tings dat give it up / Like no stress, just gimme uck.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 96: He’s with some white ting who’s like half his size.

16. (UK black/gang) a knife.

2017

1011 ‘Kill Confirmed’ 🎵 Man dash that shank in the drain, cos my ting be covered in blood .

17. (US) a non-specific descriptor of an object for which does not know or does not wish to give the name.

2020

(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 11: It’s a sad scene in the fridge. Six Buds left. A thing of olives from Pastosa. Some Parmesan cheese.

Pertaining to the body and sex

In phrases

do a thing (v.) (also do the thing)

1. (US) to have sexual intercourse.

1968		Current Sl. III:1 5: Doing the thing, v. To have sexual intercourse.
1972		E. Folb Urban Black Argot 136: Do the Thing to have sexual intercourse with a female.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 137: To win over another with your words with the intention of [...] doing the thing.
1986		W.D. Myers Sweet Illusions 39: I didn’t want to do the thing with her. I was messing with two other chicks.

2. (W.I., Jam.) to get married.

1973

cited in Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage (1996).

do the natural thing (v.) (also ...nasty thing, ...pussy thing, get down to the natural thing) [‘just as nature intended’]

(US black) to have sexual intercourse.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 235: do the do/nasty/natural thing/pussy/thing Engage in sexual intercourse. [Ibid.] 239: get down to the natural thing Engage in sexual intercourse.

get one’s things (v.)

(UK black) of a man, to have sexual intercourse.

1999		(con. 1979–80) A. Wheatle Brixton Rock (2004) 172: I got my t’ings last night [...] I finally christened her in every which way possible.
2001		(con. 1981) A. Wheatle East of Acre Lane 287: He might get his t’ings tonight an’ break his duck.

one thing (n.) [abbr. the one thing men desire]

(Irish) sexual intercourse.

1989

H. Leonard Out after Dark 17: The tide of English summer visitors, all of them only after the One Thing.

skin one’s thing (v.)

(US) to masturbate.

1970

E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 402: He had skinned his thing raw.

that thing (n.) (orig. US black)

1. sexual intercourse.

1994

(con. 1900s–40s) C. Major Juba to Jive.

2. the vagina.

1994

(con. 1900s–40s) C. Major Juba to Jive.

3. the penis.

1970		San Diego Sailor 65: With that thing half way down your leg [...] [e]very cunt and all the queers in the place are bound to go for you.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 11: That thing you flashing wasn’t nothing in them streets.
1988		N. Eastwood Gardener Got Her n.p.: Give me every inch of that big thing!

Pertaining to one’s lifestyle

dick thing (n.)

see under dick n.¹

do one’s (own) thing (v.) (orig. US black)

1. to behave as dictated by one’s personal beliefs, wishes, idiosyncrasies etc.

1967		Encounter 29 106/2: These natural-born heirs to the Beat Generation[...] accept four guiding principles: (1) Do your own thing, regardless of what anyone else thinks or says or does.
1968		L. Wolf Voices from the Love Generation 241: ‘What does “doing your own thing” mean?’ ‘Anything you’re doing. Absolutely. It means, “Go away, man, I’m on my own trip. Let me do what I want.” Freedom.’.
1970		T. Southern Blue Movie (1974) 211: ‘What’s with them?’ asked Lynx [...] ‘Doing their thing, man,’ said Dave softly.
1984		Flame : a Life on the Game 112: We smoked a lot of dope and drank a lot of wine – it was all very early seventies and ‘do your own thing.’.
1999		Indep. Rev. 15 Oct. 14: I’m just an actress, doing my own thing.
2001		A. Sillitoe Birthday 172: Sending their children to schools where ‘doing your own thing’ was thought to be more important than spelling or the precision of arithmetic.
2011		Sun. Times (Johannesburg) 24 Nov. 🌐 Gays should ‘do their things’ in private.
2014		Observer 13 Apr. 17/5: The real dancers who are doing their thing.

2. to put on an act .

1968		‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2 21: Do me thing, v. To carry on with an act; do my bit.
1976		N. Thornburg Cutter and Bone (2001) 119: He had done his thing with the locals, whipping out the old aw-shucks routine as the visting hayseed tycoon.
2002		J. Ridley Conversation with the Mann 73: It was a hole of a joint where comics [...] could go and do their thing for what constituted an audience.

3. (W.I., also do that thing) to dance in an uninhibited manner, to enjoy oneself to the full.

1926		Van Vechten Nigger Heaven 13: Charleston! Charleston! Do that thing! Oh boy!
1979		E. Torres After Hours 123: She’s shakin’ and turnin’ and doin’ her thing.

4. to perform an action.

1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 52: He hurried over to the east wall [...] and started doing his thing [i.e. urinating].
2021		P Howard Braywatch 68: We’re listening to Father Reddin do his thing – Holy Mary and all the rest of it.

do one’s things (v.)

see do one’s business under business n.

do the thing (v.)

(US gay) to pursue a homosexual lifestyle.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 66: do the thing be an active homosexual.
1981		W.D. Myers Hoops 88: ‘Y’all gonna do the thing?’ he asked [...] ‘Hey, brother, you know what I say. [...] A chick is slick, but gay is okay!’ .

get one’s thing off (v.)

1. (US black) to gain pleasure from any act.

1971		R. Woodley Dealer 188: ‘[H]e’s kind of a big freak. I think he gets his thing off dealing with the underworld’.
1983		R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

2. (drugs) to inject oneself with heroin.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

get one’s thing together (v.)

to sort out one’s way of life, one’s business.

1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 5: I gon be the man on this side of town cause I got my thing together.
1978		W.D. Myers It Ain’t All for Nothin’ 55: You go someplace and some cat look at you like you ain’t nothing just because he got his thing together. What you think he saying, man? [...] He saying he got your manhood.
2002		W.D. Myers Handbook for Boys 150: ‘When I get through this mess, I’m going to be a changed man. [. . . .] I’m going to get my thing together and move out to the ‘burbs’.
2007		W.D. Myers What They Found 122: Little Eddie is my son, and I always thought that one day I would get my thing together and hook up with him.

ghetto thing (n.)

(US black) anything pertaining to black cultural identity.

1996

Dayton Family ‘Ghetto’ 🎵 on F.B.I. [album] Yes that’s a ghetto thing, hit with a ghetto swing / If you don’t know why I say it, than ask Mr. Rodney King / Cause down in Los Angeles, the ghetto is scandalous / than Uncle Toms, even they can’t handle this / I go to a ghetto school, I’m keepin it ghetto cool.

have one’s thing together (v.)

(US black) to be in control of all aspects of one’s situation.

2009

W.D. Myers Dope Sick 19: Grandma Lois had her thing together.

whole ’nother thing (n.)

(US) a totally different situation; something else completely.

1974		F. Ross Oreo 80: All that other jazz is a whole ’nother thing. You're going to have to figure that out by yourself.
1993		in K.S. Stern Holocaust Denial 129: Wait, wait, wait a minute, that’s a whole ’nother thing.
2003		News Trib. (Tacoma, Seattle) 9 Dec. 🌐 Successful satire points out weaknesses, and the Corpuz-character did that when he sang of a Tacoma-themed Christmas tree: ‘Just like the city, it looks fancy and pretty. The inside’s a whole ’nother thing.’.
2010		J. Lane In This Cruel World 26: It’s a whole ’nother thing when a guy thinks you like him.

your thing (n.) (also yo thang)

(orig. US black) one’s preference, one’s own style, one’s role within the group.

1968

‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2 52: Your things [sic], n. Your way of acting. — That’s your thing if you want to act like a fool.

Other uses

have a thing about (v.) (also have a thing for)(orig. US)

1. to dislike intensely.

1930		B. Hall Modern Conversation 264: The phrase that corresponds to ‘to have a complex about’ is ‘to have a thing about’ something.
1945		Autocar XC 635/2: I have a thing about ‘dead weight’ because it obviously results in unnecessary petrol consumption, poorer performance and reduced tyre and brake life.
1960		J. Hersey Child Buyer 139: I have a thing about electricity, thunderstorms, defective wiring.
1970		B. Fuller Nullarbor Story 71: Fred had a ‘thing’ about water.
1999		Guardian G2 6 Sept. 12: I’ve got this thing about Croydon.
2000		Observer Mag. 30 Jan. 24: Big, fat, buzzing bluebottles. I’ve got a thing about them.

2. to be obsessed with, esp. to be sexually obsessed.

1950		M. Dickens Flowers on the Grass 226: You might have a ‘thing’ about someone. Most of the elder boys and girls had it about each other, and Selina had one about Peter.
1964		E. Shrake But Not For Love 187: ‘I used to have a tremendous thing for you when I was a little girl’.
1974		(con. 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 235: There’s this guy [...] who’s had a thing about her ever since they were little kids.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 20: He had this thing for a PR chick.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 147: I’ve got a thing for men who are hurting.
1983		S. May No Exceptions in Best Radio Plays (1984) 115: What’s he done this time? Typical. Dot said he had a thing about cars.
1993		K. Scott Monster (1994) 139: Americans have a thing for attacking our private parts during a scuffle.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 11: Ye reckon that’s right? Kelly’s goat a thing aboot us?
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 82: Crystal definitely had a thing for the little Aussie conman.
1998		P. Bailey Kitty and Virgil (1999) 44: Joan had this thing about the English aristocracy, thought the sun shone out of their arses.
2000		P. Temple Dead Point (2008) [ebook] What was her name? My mate Sim had a thing for her.
2001		Week (US) 4 May 8: James King has a thing about cars. ‘When I move out to California I’m gonna have 20 million different cars.’.
2005		P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 7: I could tell [...] that she had a bit of a thing for yours truly.

have a thing with (v.)

1. (also have a thing going (on), have something going) to have a love affair with.

1943		‘Henry Green’ Caught (2001) 162: You mean Shiner’s having a thing with Ilse?
1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 41: I got a thing going – here in the city – you know?
1973		D. Goines Street Players 186: I thought maybe her and the preacher had a thing going on.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 137: Teenagers also talked of their desire for longterm, stable ties. Expressions like [...] have a thing or something going attest to that.
1985		O. Hawkins Chili 19: You know so’n so Jones? the singer? we had a thang goin’ on last year.

2. (US) to have a complaint, a criticism of someone.

1963

M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 143: I got a thing with you [...] I don’t like your action. It stinks.

SE in slang uses

In phrases

any old thing (n.)

(US) any thing whatever.

1897		in DARE.
1907		C. Fowler letter 16 Aug. in Tomlinson Rocky Mountain Sailor (1998) 255: I was satisfied to be able to get any old thing, at any odd price, whether it was just what I really wanted or not .
1911		R.W. Chambers Common Law 63: ‘Would you like to have a chance to study?’ ‘Study? What?’ ‘Sculpture — any old thing!’.
1917		A.G. Empey Over the Top 25: The Lieutenant who enlisted me asked my religion. I was not sure of the religion of the British Army, so I answered, ‘Oh, any old thing,’ and he promptly put down C. of E.
1940		War Illus. 12 Jan. ii/2: It is just one man’s reactions to circumstances of the moment and his thoughts on ‘any old thing.’ [OED].
1998		Boston Phoenix 2 Nov. n.p.: If you open yourself up to it, pop can serve as a backdrop (or a catalyst) for any old thing.
2002		(con. 1907) ‘Scoutmaster Minute’ Scouting.com 🌐 Baden-Powell was once asked what the motto meant. What is a Scout supposed to be prepared for? ‘Why any old thing,’ Baden- Powell replied.

be up/down to a thing or two (v.)

see know a thing or two v.

do the other thing [i.e. go to hell]

a phr. meaning if you don’t like it this way, then...

1866		J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 183: I’m a-goin’ to sing my song [...] and them as don’t like to jine in the chorus can do t’other thing.
c.1905		J. Furphy Rigby’s Romance (1921) Ch. xiv: 🌐 ‘Do the other (adj.) thing, then,’ says I, gammonin’ to fire up.

do the — thing (v.) [all such terms have a slight air of insincerity or at least of calculated performance, although they may equally well be quite genuine]

to perform a particular action, as defined by the missing adj. and the word thing, e.g. do the charming thing.

1989		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 3: do the – thing – ‘Do the study thing.’.
1991		Eble Campus Sl. Mar.

do things to (v.) (also do things for)

to excite, usu. sexually.

1957

H. Simmons Corner Boy 32: It [i.e. the smell of a girlfriend] did things to Jake.