Heading
1889. Answers, 9 Feb. The regular hotel thieves are constantly inventing new dodges to do us.
2. (pugilistic).—To 'punish.'
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.
5. (counterfeiters').—To utter base coin or queer (q.v.).
Do as I do, phr. (common).—An invitation to drink.—See Drinks.
To do a beer, or a bitter, or a drink, or a drop, verb. phr. (common).—To take a drink.
1853. Bradley ('Cuthbert Bede'), Verdant Green, ch. x. To do bitters, as Mr. Bouncer phrased the act of drinking bitter beer.
1880. Milliken, Punch's Almanack. Got the doldrums dreadful, that is clear, Two d left!—must go and do a beer.
To do a bilk.—See Bilk.
To do a bill, verb. phr. (commercial).—To utter an acceptance or bill of exchange. Cf., to fly paper or kites.
1837. R. H. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends [ed. 1862], p. 257. Now, then, old sinner, let's hear what you'll say As to doing a bill at three months from to-day.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lxii. Sir Francis Clavering . . . had managed to sign his respectable name to a piece of stamped paper, which . . . Mr. Moss Abrams had carried off, promising to have the bill done by a party with whose intimacy Mr. Abrams was favoured.
To do a bishop, verb. phr. (military).—To parade at short notice.
To do a bit, verb. phr. (common).—To eat something. Cf., to do a beer. Also (venery), to have a woman.
To do a bunk or shift, verb. phr. (vulgar).—To ease nature.—See Bury a quaker and
