Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Used as a courtesy title before the name of a man in a Spanish-speaking area.
- n. Chiefly British A head, tutor, or fellow at a college of Oxford or Cambridge.
- n. Chiefly British A college or university professor.
- n. The leader of an organized-crime family.
- n. Archaic An important personage.
- v. To put on (clothing).
- v. To assume or take on: donned the air of the injured party.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To put on; invest with.
- n. [capitalized] A title in Spain and Italy prefixed to a man's Christian name, like Sir in Great Britain. Formerly, in Spain, it was confined to men of high rank, but is now applied to all persons of the better classes, and is a mere title of courtesy.
- n. A gentleman; a man bearing the title of or addressed as “Don.”
- n. Any person of high importance or leading position: applied ironically to one giving himself airs of importance.
- n. In Great Britain, a fellow of a college, or any college authority.
- n. In sea-fishing, a buoy used to mark a fishing-ground.
Wiktionary
- n. A university professor, particularly one at Oxford or Cambridge.
- n. A mafia boss.
- v. clothing to put on, to dress in
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Sir; Mr; Signior; -- a title in Spain, formerly given to noblemen and gentlemen only, but now common to all classes.
- n. Univ. Cant A grand personage, or one making pretension to consequence; especially, the head of a college, or one of the fellows at the English universities.
- v. To put on; to dress in; to invest one's self with.
WordNet 3.0
- n. Celtic goddess; mother of Gwydion and Arianrhod; corresponds to Irish Danu
- n. a Spanish courtesy title or form of address for men that is prefixed to the forename
- n. a Spanish gentleman or nobleman
- n. a European river in southwestern Russia; flows into the Sea of Azov
- n. the head of an organized crime family
- v. put clothing on one's body
- n. teacher at a university or college (especially at Cambridge or Oxford)
Etymologies
- A contraction of Middle English do on. Compare also doff. (Wiktionary)
- Spanish dialectal and Italian, both from Latin dominus, lord; see dem- in Indo-European roots.Middle English, contraction of do on, to put on; see do1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Mr. Bush's low approval ratings at the end of his term don't help, said Leonard Pfeiffer IV, a Washington recruiter for nonprofits.”
The Wall Street Journal: Jobs Still Elude Some Bush Ex-Officials
“The title don't make since to me -- it don't match the cake -- something is wrong here.”
By Show of Hands, Who Thinks We Should Call Child Protective Services?
“Sometimes, the term don-spyi is used for the combination of an audio and a meaning/object category.”
The Distinction between Self-sufficiently Knowable and Imputedly Knowable Phenomena
“Gingrich's attempt to hold Muslims collectively accountable for the actions of a relative handful of extremists doesn't simply reinforce al-Qaeda's narrative that America is at war with Islam as a whole; it skirts dangerously close to accepting the terrorist-friendly premise that "innocents" as we generally understand the term don't actually exist.”
“It's a handle; it doesn't mean the people who use the term don't see the moral difference between mobsters who commit heinous crimes and the lawyers who defend them.”
“Chelsea's 12 goals in their last two Premier League games and theirstrong challenge for the title don't seem to have inspired the StamfordBridge faithful.”
“It's seems that the vast majority of songs with the word "woman" in the title don't begin with that word.”
“Just cause they took the numberings out in the title don't mean we get to # them however we want to.”
“Mr. Bush's low approval ratings at the end of his term don't help, said Leonard Pfeiffer IV, a Washington recruiter for nonprofits.”
“The image and the title don't really leave me with much more to say, so … ummm …. banana hammock!”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘don’.
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POL - people in power
daredevil, tzar, king, boss, master, commander, chief, kingpin, top banana, bigwig, big cheese, big wheel and 452 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Unknown
coalition, cabinet, tweet, defuse, steep, ancestral, mindset, breach, infraction, egregious, curb, backbite and 282 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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multiple meaning words
These words seem very familiar but are awfully-versatile and oftentimes serve senses exceptionally beyond people's presumptions ...
sense, serve, please, say, profile, draw, weather, bear, project, ship, profiler, tune and 140 more...
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Common English Words That Are Also Fi...
art, bob, bill, grace, hope, john, heather, pat, amber, jack, dale, glen and 170 more...
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Palabras de 3 letras en Español.
¡La única lista que también incluye flexiónes verbales y pluralizaciones! Ayúdame a encontrarlas todas.
(Por ser una lista para Scrabble, los dígrafos ll, rr, y ch valen como una sola ...aba, aca, aga, ahe, ahi, aho, aja, aje, aji, ajo, ala, ale and 427 more...
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Scrabble Names
Given names that were acceptable for play the last time I checked the OWL.
kris, ray, barb, morris, kat, mark, maria, erica, marge, mason, hunter, hazel and 168 more...
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3-letter Scrabble Words
aah, aal, aas, aba, abo, abs, aby, ace, act, add, ado, ads and 995 more...
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3 Letter Words
A list of English words that are three letters long.
ace, act, ade, ado, add, ads, age, ago, ail, air, aim, all and 397 more...
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Roots
act, aer, ambul, ami, amo, anim, ann, enn, arch, rcha, rchae, archi and 139 more...
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Suffix
-able, ade, age, al, an, ian, ance, ant, ar, ard, arian, ary and 60 more...
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WORDNIK - words found in "Wordnik"
kino, inro, indow, in, ikon, id, drown, drink, down, ink, dork, dor and 54 more...
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What's That Pokémon Name?
Words used to create the names of Pokémon, which are usually portmanteaux.
bulb, dinosaur, ivy, venus, char, salamander, squirt, turtle, blast, tortoise, water, caterpillar and 525 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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diioxyde's Words
macabre, egypt, egyptology, queen, love, sex, sister, lover, web, cobweb, line, circle and 223 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for don.

stpeter A contraction of "do on". Contrast with doff. Jan 5, 2007