do for
English
[edit]Verb
[edit]do for (third-person singular simple present does for, present participle doing for, simple past did for, past participle done for)
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see do, for.
- (transitive, British) To doom; to bring about the demise of someone; to injure or harm someone.
- Synonyms: damage, wound; see also Thesaurus:harm, Thesaurus:kill
- Smoking did for him in the end.
- She's done for!
- 1918, Siegfried Sassoon, “The General”, in Counter-Attack and Other Poems:
- "He's a cheery old card," muttered Harry to Jack / As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack. / * * * * * / But he did for them both by his plan of attack.
- 1922 February, James Joyce, “[16]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part III [Nostos], page 604:
- —That bitch, that English whore, did for him, the shebeen proprietor commented. She put the first nail in his coffin.
- (transitive, British) To prosecute someone for a criminal offence.
- He was done for murder.
- The police did him for conspiracy to commit burglary.
- (UK, dated, intransitive) To work as a domestic servant for.
- Synonyms: attend, serve, wait on; see also Thesaurus:serve
- 1915, Frank Thomas Bullen, Recollections:
- I've left my key in my office in Manchester, my family are at Bournemouth, and the old woman who does for me goes home at nine o'clock.
- (slang) To tire; to exhaust.
- Synonyms: fordo, weary; see also Thesaurus:tire
- All this running has done for me.