do over

UK/ˈduːˌəʊvə/US/ˈduˌoʊvəɹ/

verb

To cover with; to smear or spread on to.

“Our house got done over last night.”

Meanings

verbdo over (third-person singular simple present does over, present participle doing over, simple past did over, past participle done over)

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

  1. transitiveTo cover with; to smear or spread on to.
    1 more example

    [H]e ſeem'd amaz'd at the Sight of our Bark, having never ſeen any thing of that Kind before, for their Boats are moſt wretched Things, ſuch as I never ſaw before, having no Head or Stern, and being made only of the Skins of Goats, ſewed together with dried Guts of Goats and Sheep and done over with a kind of ſlimy Stuff like Roſin and Oil, but of a moſt nauſeous, odious Smell, […]

    1720, [Daniel Defoe], The Life, Adventures, and Pyracies, of the Famous Captain Singleton, London: […] J[ohn] Brotherton, […], J[ohn] Graves […], A[nne] Dodd, […], and T[homas] Warner, […], →OCLC, page 78
  2. UKslangtransitiveTo beat up.

    If someone tries to do my guitar, and I don't want it to be done, it's between him and me. I don't call in Bill Wyman to come in and do him over for me, with one of his vicious ankle-twisters or Chinese burns.

    1971 August 19, Robert Greenfield, quoting Keith Richards, “The Rolling Stone Interview: Keith Richard[s]”, in Rolling Stone, number 89, San Francisco, Calif.: Rolling Stone, →ISSN, →OCLC; republished in Cindy Ehrlich, editor, The Rolling Stones, [San Francisco, Calif.]: Straight Arrow Publishers, 1975, →OCLC, page 57, column 2
    1 more example

    I go to a match for one reason only: the aggro. […] [E]very night during the week we go round looking respectable … then if we see someone who looks like the enemy we ask him the time; if he answers in a foreign accent, we do him over; and if he's got any money on him we'll roll him as well.

    1974, Paul Harrison, “Soccer’s Tribal Wars”, in New Society: The Social Science Weekly, London: Harrison Raison & Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 604; republished as Patrick Murphy, John Williams, Eric Dunning, Football on Trial: Spectator Violence and Development in the Football World, London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 1990, →ISBN, page 86
  3. UStransitiveTo repeat; to start over.
  4. slangtransitiveTo rob (someone or a place).

    Our house got done over last night.

Synonyms & antonyms

Translations

Latvian pārkrāsot
  • pārkrāsotto cover with; to smear or spread on to
Polish dekorować, udekorować
  • dekorowaćto cover with; to smear or spread on to
  • udekorowaćto cover with; to smear or spread on to
  • ozdabiaćto cover with; to smear or spread on to
  • ozdobićto cover with; to smear or spread on to
Cite this entry
APA

do over. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/do%20over

MLA

“do over.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/do%20over. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “do over,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/do%20over.

Source: do over on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.