do for

present singular third person does for · participle present doing for · past did for · participle past done for

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see do, for.

   What can I do for you?

2. UKtransitiveTo doom; to bring about the demise of someone; to injure or harm someone.

   She's done for!

   3 more examples

   Smoking did for him in the end.

   "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.

   1918, Siegfried Sassoon, “The General”, in Counter-Attack and Other Poems

   —That bitch, that English whore, did for him, the shebeen proprietor commented. She put the first nail in his coffin.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[16]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part III [Nostos], page 604

   Synonyms: damage, wound, abuse, annoy, bewound, damage, damnify, dere

3. UKtransitiveTo prosecute someone for a criminal offence.

   He was done for murder.

   1 more example

   The police did him for conspiracy to commit burglary.

4. UKdatedintransitiveTo work as a domestic servant for.

   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.

   1915, Frank Thomas Bullen, Recollections

   Synonyms: attend, serve, wait on, aid, attend, attend to, await, bestand

5. slangTo tire; to exhaust.

   All this running has done for me.

   Synonyms: fordo, weary, beleaguer, exhaust, fatigue, fordo, gas out, get down