3. (common).—To visit a place; e.g., ‘to do Italy,’ ‘to do the Row,’
‘to do the High’ (at Oxford), etc. Early quots. are given; latterly the
phrase is common enough. The Fr., faire is used in the same sense;
faire ses Acacias, i.e., to walk or drive in the Allée des Acacias.
1857. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, ch. xxxii. We did Venice
very severely, with the exception of Forrester, who ... declined
seeing anything more than what he could view from his gondola.
1858. Shirley Brooks, The Gordian Knot, p. 53. You have been in
Egypt? asked Margaret, with much interest. I did Egypt, as they
say, about two years back, [said Philip].
4. (colloquial).—To perform; to ‘come’; e.g., to do the polite = to be
polite; to do a book = to write one; to do the heavy, the grand, or the
genteel = to put on airs.
1767. Colman, Eng. Merchant, I., in wks. (1777), ii. 17. I compose
pamphlets on all subjects, compile magazines, and do newspapers.
1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 224. He used to talk politics to
papas, flatter the vanity of mammas, do the amiable to their
daughters.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xv., p. 125. There was the young lady
who did the poetry in the Eatanswill Gazette, in the garb of a
sultana.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xxiv. A great number of the
descriptions in Cook’s Voyages, for instance, were notoriously
invented by Dr. Hawkesworth, who did the book.
1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. iii. A vision of John
doing the polite, and laughing as he ceremoniously introduced
Captain Lovell and Miss Coventry.
1864. Glasgow Citizen, 29 Nov. Is not the exhilarating short-length
of being known beyond our own Queen Street that it is not
registered here? And we miss the rag trade whose worthy members do
the above-named goes.
1880. Milliken, Punch’s Almanack. Nobby button ’oler very well,
When one wants to do the ’eavy swell.