To do a grind, a mount, a tread, etc., verb. phr. (venery).—To
copulate.
To do or play gooseberry.—See Gooseberry.
To do gospel, verb. phr. (common).—To go to church.
To do the handsome or the handsome thing, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To
behave extremely well to one.
To do it away, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To dispose of stolen goods. Also
To do the swag (q.v.); to fence (q.v.).
To do it on the B. H., verb. phr. (common).—To perform with ease. [B =
bloody; H = head].
1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 221. ‘What’s yer
dose?’ Looking on to my badge, ‘Five, oh, you can do that little
lot on yer ’ed easy.’
To do it up, verb. phr. (old).—To accomplish an object in view; to
obtain one’s quest. To do it up in good twig = to live an easy life by
one’s wits.
To do one proud, phr. (colloquial).—To flatter: e.g., ‘Will you drink?’
‘You do me proud.’
1836. W. G. Clark, Ollapodriana Papers. To this damsel I addressed
myself, and solicited her hand in the dance. She assented; and with
my brain reeling with fancies of wine and women, I really thought,
for the moment, that ‘she did me proud.’
1887. Sidney Luska, Land of Love, in ‘Lippincott’s Mag.,’ p. 241.
Ah? So? The frank confession does you proud.
To do out, verb. phr. (American thieves’).—To plead guilty and
exonerate an accomplice.
To do over, verb. phr. (common).—1. To knock down; to persuade; to
cheat; to ruin.
1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 50. Who could, at any time,
do him over, as they phrased it, for half-a-crown or half-a-guinea.
1836. C. Dickens, Pickwick Papers, p. 326 (ed. 1857). Well, said
Sam, he’s in a horrid state o’ love; reg’larly comfoozled, and done
over with it.
2. (thieves’).—To search a victim’s pockets without his knowing it.
Cf., run the rule over.
3. (venery).—To seduce; also to copulate. For synonyms, see Dock and
Ride respectively.
To do polly, verb. phr. (American prison).—To pick oakum in gaol.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or the Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.
To do one’s business, verb. phr. (common).—To kill. For synonyms, see
Cook one’s Goose. Cf., Business. Also (vulgar), to evacuate; and
(venery), to serve a woman.
1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. VIII., ch. x. He concluded he had
pretty well done their business, for both of them, as they ran off,
cried out with bitter oaths, that they were dead men.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xii. Then he took down his
venerable and murderous duelling-pistols, with flint locks, that
had done the business of many a pretty fellow in Dublin.
1856. C. Reade, Never Too Late, ch. xvi. She was stronger than he
was for a moment or two, and that moment would have done his
business. She meant killing.
To do the downy, verb. phr. (common).—To lie in bed. Downy flea pasture
= a bed. Cf., Balmy.
1841. Leman Rede, Sixteen-String Jack, Act i., Sc. vi. Jer. The
family’s gone to downy nap this half-hour. Why don’t the captain
give the signal.
1853. C. Bede, Verdant Green, pt. ii., p. 59. This’ll never do,
Giglamps! Cutting chapel to do the downy.
To do the swag, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To sell stolen property, Fr.,
laver la camelote or les fourgueroles. Cf., To do clobber.
To do the trick, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To accomplish one’s object;
specifically (venery), to do the ‘act of kind’ effectually, and (for
woman), to get rid of one’s maidenhead.
1864. Derby Day, p. 38. If the little ’un don’t do the trick me an’
him’ll fall out.
1870–2. Gallery of Comicalities. Star of the stable! Ostler Dick,
Still in your calling wide awake; I warrant you can do the trick—A
cunning cove, and no mistake.
18(?). W. C. Russell, Representative Actors, p. 476. Edmund Kean then
whispered in his son’s ear ‘Charlie, we are doing the trick.’
To do time, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To serve a term of imprisonment.
1871. Times, Dec. Both ... fled to New York to save doing time on
the treadmill.
1884. Cornhill Mag., June, p. 614. He has repeatedly done time for
drunks and disorderlies, and for assaults upon the police.
1888. Referee, 15 April, 3, 1. The robbers-in-chief, who had done
time before, were sentenced to five years’ penal servitude.
To do to death, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To repeat ad nauseam.
To do to tie to, verb. phr. (American).—To be fit to associate with; to
be trustworthy.
To do up, verb. phr. (common).—To use up; finish; or quiet. Done up =
tired out; ruined; ‘sold up.’ For synonyms, see Floored.
1594. Nashe, Unf. Traveller, in wks. v., 170. I was cleane spent
and done, there was no hope of me.
1667. Dryden, Ann. Mir., st. 70. Not so the Holland fleet, who,
tired and done, Stretch’d on their decks like weary oxen lie.
1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxxiv. ‘How did he get back from
India?’ ‘Why, how should I know? The house there was done up, and
that gave us a shake at Middleburgh.’
1831. Disraeli, The Young Duke, bk. iv., ch. xii., p. 245 (ed.
1866), ‘The Universe’ and ‘The New World’ announced that the young
duke was done up.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. III., p. 264. A
man’s done up at fifty, and seldom lives long after, if he has to
keep on at coal-portering.
1870. L. Oliphant, Piccadilly, pt. iii., p. 130. I am awfully done,
said Spiffy. I never went to bed at all last night.
[For the rest, do, like chuck and cop, is a verb-of-all-work, and is
used in every possible and impossible connection. Thus, to do reason
and to do right = to honour a toast; to do a bit of stiff = to draw a
bill; to do a chuck = to eject, or to go away; to do a rub-up = to
masturbate; to do a sip (back slang) = to make water; to do a cat = to
vomit; to do a hall or a theatre = to visit a music hall or a
playhouse; to do a fluff (theatrical) = to forget one’s part; to do a
pitch (showman’s or street artists’) = to go through a performance; to
do a mouch or a mike = to go on the prowl; to do a grouse = to go
questing for women; to do a doss = to go to sleep; to do a cadge = to
go begging; to do a tumble or a spread = to lie down to a man; to do a
perpendicular or knee-trembler = to copulate standing; to do a scrap =
to engage in combat; to do a rural = to ‘rear’ by the wayside; to do a
dive in the dark = to copulate; etc.
Doash, subs. (Old Cant).—A cloak. For synonyms, see Capella.
Dobbin, subs. (old).—Ribbon. Dobbin Rig = stealing ribbon.
Dock, subs. (printers’).—1. The weekly work bill or pole (q.v.).