do in

phraseC12 meaningsinformal · an editor’s judgementNot compared — the two pools are counted one word at a time, so a phrase has no score

To do in is to kill somebody — or to wear them out completely. Both are informal, and one is a great deal more serious.

The killing sense belongs to crime fiction and to jokes rather than to real reporting, so threatening to do somebody in is almost never literal. The exhausting sense is common and harmless, and being done in after a long day is what everybody says. The adjective done in means shattered. Context and tone separate the two entirely.

Definitions of do in

1phrasedo inTo exhaust somebody completely.C1
“That climb will do in anybody who is not used to it.”
2phrasekillTo kill somebody.C1
“In the film they do in the witness before the trial.”

Practised in A Man Called Ove, A Song of Ice and Fire

First appears in chapter 11 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

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do in

phraseC12 meaningsinformal · an editor’s judgementNot compared — the two pools are counted one word at a time, so a phrase has no score

To do in is to kill somebody — or to wear them out completely. Both are informal, and one is a great deal more serious.

Definitions of do in

1phrasedo inTo exhaust somebody completely.C1
“That climb will do in anybody who is not used to it.”
2phrasekillTo kill somebody.C1
“In the film they do in the witness before the trial.”

Practised in A Man Called Ove, A Song of Ice and Fire

First appears in chapter 11 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word