do

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“
Your incantation was in French--do they understand the language They understand me There was a curious dignity in her reply You are French, Mam'selle I came from France a long while ago, so long that I do not remember Was it in another life?

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Definitions (140)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (61)

  1. transitive verb To perform or execute: do one's assigned task; do a series of business deals.
  2. transitive verb To fulfill the requirements of: did my duty at all times.
  3. transitive verb To carry out; commit: a crime that had been done on purpose.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (59)

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Examples (50)

  • I think that the best thing I ever saw her do was the farewell to the boy in “Sweethearts.” It was exquisite! —  The Story of My Life
  • In order to win the DepositFiles Gold Key, what you have to do is to be the last one to post a comment at the comment section of this article before or on —  My Digital Life
  • They make sure that what they do is actually what the business wanted them to do, and, by the way, that they are spending the right money on the right business priorities. —  Latest News from JAVA Developer's Journal
  • All I wanna do is a zoom zoom zoom zoom in da boom boom - literally ... —  Thoughts, Raves & Outright Beatings
  • This has included telling clients that there are things they cannot do, and things that they should not do -- or rather, than I would not help, or enable them to do, that would subvert, or pervert, the public interest. —  Patent Law Blog (Patently-O)
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

have ·  know ·  say ·  try ·  go ·  take ·  give ·  find ·  make ·  one ·  read ·  lie

Used in the same contextWord Family

do:   did ·  doing ·  done ·  does
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (6)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English don, from Old English dōn; see dhē- in Indo-European roots.
  2. Italian, more singable replacement of ut; see gamut.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. (a) Inf. do, early modern English also doe, doo, dooe, archaically don, done (present indicative 1 do, early modern English also doe, doo; 2 dost, doest, early modern English also doost; 3 does, early modern English also dooes, do's; doth, doeth, early modern English also dooth), from Middle English do, doo, with infinitive suffix don, doon, done (present indicative 1 do, 2 dost, dest, 3 doth, deth, plural do, don, doon, earlier doth), from Anglo-Saxon dōn (present indicative 1 dō, 2 dēst, 3 dēth, plural dōth) = Old Saxon dōn, duon, duan, dōan = OFries. dua = Dutch doen = Middle Low German Low German dōn = Old High German tōn, tuon, tuan, tuen, tōan, Middle High German tuon, German tun, thun (not in Scandinavian or Gothic (Moesogothic) except as in preterit suffix, Gothic (Moesogothic) -da, subjunctive -dēdjau, = Icelandic -dha, -da, -ta = Swedish -de = Danish -de = Anglo-Saxon -de, English -d, -ed: see -ed); (b) preterit did (2d person singular didst, didest, diddest), from Middle English did, dyd, dide, dyde, dede, dude, plural dide, diden, dyden, deden, duden, from Anglo-Saxon dide, dyde, plural didon, dydon = Old Saxon deda, plural dedun, dadun = OFries. dede, plural deden = Dutch deed = Middle Low German Low German dede, plural deden = Old High German teta, plural (3) tātun, Middle High German tete, tate, plural taten, German tat, that, plural taten, thaten (in Scandinavian and Gothic (Moesogothic) only as preterit suffix, Gothic (Moesogothic) -da, plural (3) -dēdun: see above): this preterit form being a reduplication of the present stem (cf. the reduplicated forms of the present in Greek and Sanskrit), and the only form in modern Teutonic which retains visible traces of that method of indicating past time (this preterit did, used in the earliest Teutonic as a suffix to form the preterit of verbs then formed, became reduced in Gothic (Moesogothic) to -da, in Anglo-Saxon to -de, in English to -d, usually treated as -ed, with the preceding stem-vowel: see -ed); (c) past participle done, from Middle English don, doon, or i-don, y-don, often without the suffix do, doo, i-do, y-do, from Anglo-Saxon gedōn = Old Saxon dōn, duan, dān = OFries. dēn, dān = Dutch gedaan = Middle Low German gedān, Low German daan = Old High German tān, Middle High German getan, German getan, gethan; (d) present participle doing, from Middle English doinge, earlier doende, doande, from Anglo-Saxon dōnde = Old Saxon OFries. *duand (not found) = Old High German tuont, Middle High German tuend, German tuend, thuend: a widely extended Indo-European root, ‘do, make, put,’ = L. -dere, put, in comp. abdere, put away (see abditive), condere, put together, put up (see condite, condiment), abs-condere, put away, hide (see abscond), indere, put upon, impose, subdere, put under, substitute (see subdititious), credere, trust (see credit) (the L. verb being merged in form and sense with dare, in comp. -dere, give: see date), = Greek √ *θε, *θη, in reduplicated present τιθἐναι, indicative τίθημι, put, place, θέμα, a thing laid down, a proposition, theme, θέσις, a putting, position, thesis, θήκη, a case, etc. (see theme, thesis, theca, antithesis, etc.), = Old Bulgarian déti, dêyati = Slov. dyati, put, lay, say, etc. (being widely developed in the Slav. tongues), = Lithuanian deti = Lettish dēt, put, lay, = OPers. √ dā = Sanskrit √ dhā (present dadhāmi), put, lay. The orig. sense ‘put’ appears especially in the compounds, originally contractions, of do with a following adverb, namely, don (from do on), doff (from do off), dout (from do out), dup (from do up). Peculiar infinitive forms, consisting of do combined with the prepositional sign, appear as nouns in ado and to-do. Deriv. deed, doom, deem, -dom, etc. Cf. do. The uses of do, as a verb expressing almost any kind of activity, are so various, and are involved in so many idiomatic constructions, that a complete discrimination and exhibition of them in strict sequence is impossible, the coloring of the verb being largely due to its context.
  2. Formerly also doe; from do, v.
  3. Now identified in form and inflection with the much more common and comprehensive verb do. The senses of do and do, v. i., are so intermingled that it is impossible to separate them completely. All uses not obviously belonging to do it is best to refer to do. Same as Scots and English dial. dow, which is phonetically the right modern form: see dow.
  4. A mere syllable, more sonorous than ut, for which it is substituted.
 

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