Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A naive idealist who supports philanthropic or humanitarian causes or reforms.
Wiktionary
- n. derogatory One who advocates or performs what they believe to be the morally superior course of action, even in the face of overwhelming experience or factual evidence that its effect is only irrelevant or harmful.
WordNet 3.0
- n. someone devoted to the promotion of human welfare and to social reforms
Etymologies
- From do + good + -er. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“There's no beating "The Interrupters" as a prime example of the so-called "do-gooder" documentary, except that it's actually good.”
“She had put up with being called a do-gooder, a chump.”
“Then there is this one from Stephen Budiansky in the New York Times, attacking the local foods movement as threatening to "devolve into another one of those self-indulgent -- and self-defeating -- do-gooder dogmas.”
“Has the environmental movement's rhetoric become clichéd, too do-gooder, and too easily ignored?”
The Huffington Post: David de Rothschild: Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Presentation?
“Has the environmental movement's rhetoric become clichéd, too do-gooder, and too easily ignored?”
The Huffington Post: David de Rothschild: Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Presentation?
“To follow Sally Ranney's career over the past 40 years is to see what a "do-gooder" does in real life.”
The Huffington Post: Alexia Parks: Ted Turner's Environmental Muse
“Resist the temptation to waltz off with do-gooder resolve and start writing checks.”
The Huffington Post: Rev. Chuck Freeman: Help Build a Mosque
“You know, the false fear the doomsayers use to attract members and money to their do-gooder organizations, freaking us about their pet peeves, trying to get us all worked up over nothing.”
“The Green Boys actually pretend to be about Equality and Sustainability and Democracy, but they are just as obsessed as the oil and Wall Street guys with accumulating more, having more power and "buying" arm candy, all with a do-gooder smile on their faces.”
“These kids need help, and I've always been sort of a 'do-gooder.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘do-gooder’.
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dos and don'ts
do tell, do over, do in, do nothing, do up, do not erase, do not disturb, Do Not Go Gentle ..., do-it-yourself, do-good, do one's best, do not enter and 59 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (D)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
desert rose, dabble, daffodil, dagger, dairymaid, daisy, damask, damson, dappled, dart, dashed, dauphin and 111 more...
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I Am the...
Adjectives that describe what I may or may not be or whom to some I might appear to be...
charlatan, pimp, degenerate, miscreant, painter, creator, trouper, do-gooder, chum, chump, genius, gentlewoman and 41 more...
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Err.. or?
hugger mugger, jaw dropper, do-gooder, illywhacker, teetotaller, lasher, overachiever, purveyor, horrorist
Tweets
Looking for tweets for do-gooder.
Comments
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