Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Daring or reckless action.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See daring-do.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun brave and heroic deeds.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Valiant deeds in desperate times.
  • noun Brave and adventurous, often reckless actions.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun brave and heroic feats

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Misinterpretation of earlier derrynge do, daring to do, misprint of Late Middle English dorryng do, from Middle English durring don : durring, present participle of durren, to dare (from Old English durran; see dare) + don, to do; see do.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English daring to do.

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Examples

  • All that radical derring-do is offset by the Zen-like calm of her renovated apartment in the Henry Street Settlement on the Lower East Side, purchased 18 months ago.

    The Ballad of a Rebel and Her Lost Love Steve Dollar 2011

  • But I imagined myself not getting a tattoo at twenty-eight; time passes; by the age of thirty-five, I would (I imagined) no longer have the youthful derring-do to go ahead and get the tattoo.

    Tattoo in Japan Boing Boing 2009

  • But Mr. Ijaz, who has a reputation for grandstanding about his diplomatic derring-do, has released Blackberry chat transcripts with the ambassador that seem to show Mr. Haqqani was one of the authors of the memorandum at the heart of this scandal.

    A U.S.-Pakistan Reset Sadanand Dhume 2011

  • But in 2000 they fell under the spell of Kamal Derwish, a charismatic, deeply religious, fellow Yemeni-American, who told them stirring tales of derring-do about his role in the early-1990s war between the Bosnian Muslims and Serbs.

    The Longest War Peter L. Bergen 2011

  • Ellie Thiry was already being monopolized by a Major Francis Basil Summers, a dashing British army intelligence officer who had been on the stage in London before the war and positively reeked of derring-do.

    A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011

  • But the librarian leadership was fired with derring-do, and they decided to go ahead with their plan to do away with Dewey.

    Steve Leveen: When Government and Business Get It Really Right -- Together Steve Leveen 2011

  • While some of the librarians sit behind the desk, others engage in even more derring-do.

    Steve Leveen: When Government and Business Get It Really Right -- Together Steve Leveen 2011

  • While some of the librarians sit behind the desk, others engage in even more derring-do.

    Steve Leveen: When Government and Business Get It Really Right -- Together Steve Leveen 2011

  • But the librarian leadership was fired with derring-do, and they decided to go ahead with their plan to do away with Dewey.

    Steve Leveen: When Government and Business Get It Really Right -- Together Steve Leveen 2011

  • That fall, in a series of articles in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Morros told his tales of derring-do to Rep. Francis E.

    A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011

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