do someone brown

verb

To deceive someone thoroughly; to take in completely.

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Meanings

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

present singular third person does someone brown · participle present doing someone brown · past did someone brown · participle past done someone brown

  1. datedslangTo deceive someone thoroughly; to take in completely.

    How could he be safe against Master Dickey doing him brown?

    1848, William Hamilton Maxwell, Brian O'Linn: Or, Luck is Everything, page 164
    2 more examples

    His only defeats were sustained in the Caulfield Guineas, when Malt King put him down, and the same horse “did him brown”– over a mile only each time, mark you—in the All Aged Stakes at Flemington.

    1919, Pastoral Review, volume 29, page 723

    James Howden dropped into an upholstered wing chair. “They certainly did us brown last night,” he remarked. “You’d think if they are making a switch, being considerate and so on, they’d be a bit more subtle.”

    1961, Arthur Hailey, “Chapter Eleven: The White House”, in In High Places (fiction; e-book, hardcover, paperback)

Origin

A play on two senses of do: to cheat, and to cook food, which may be brown when cooked thoroughly.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

do someone brown. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/do%20someone%20brown

MLA

“do someone brown.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/do%20someone%20brown. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “do someone brown,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/do%20someone%20brown.

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