What is "did"

do \do\ (d[=oo]), v. t. or auxiliary. [imp. did (d[i^]d); p. p. done (d[u^]n); p. pr. & vb. n. Doing (d[=oo]"[i^]ng). This verb, when transitive, is formed in the indicative, present tense, thus: I do, thou doest (d[=oo]"[e^]st) or dost (d[u^]st), he does (d[u^]z), doeth (d[=oo]"[e^]th), or doth (d[u^]th); when auxiliary, the second person is, thou dost. As an independent verb, dost is obsolete or rare, except in poetry. ``What dost thou in this world?'' --Milton. The form doeth is a verb unlimited, doth, formerly so used, now being the auxiliary form. The second pers, sing., imperfect tense, is didst (d[i^]dst), formerly didest (d[i^]d"[e^]st).] [AS. d[=o]n; akin to D. doen, OS. duan, OHG. tuon, G. thun, Lith. deti, OSlav. d[=e]ti, OIr. d['e]nim I do, Gr. tiqe`nai to put, Skr. dh[=a], and to E. suffix -dom, and prob. to L. facere to do, E. fact, and perh. to L. -dere in some compounds, as addere to add, credere to trust. [root]65. Cf. Deed, Deem, Doom, Fact, Creed, Theme.]

1. To place; to put. [Obs.]
   --Tale of a Usurer (about 1330).

2. To cause; to make; -- with an infinitive. [Obs.]

   My lord Abbot of Westminster did do shewe to me late certain evidences.
   --W. Caxton.

   I shall . . . your cloister do make.
   --Piers Plowman.

   A fatal plague which many did to die.
   --Spenser.

   We do you to wit [i. e., We make you to know] of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia.
   --2 Cor. viii. 1.

   Note: We have lost the idiom shown by the citations (do used like the French faire or laisser), in which the verb in the infinitive apparently, but not really, has a passive signification, i. e., cause . . . to be made.

3. To bring about; to produce, as an effect or result; to effect; to achieve.

   The neglecting it may do much danger.
   --Shak.

   He waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good not harm.
   --Shak.

4. To perform, as an action; to execute; to transact to carry out in action; as, to do a good or a bad act; do our duty; to do what I can.

   Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work.
   --Ex. xx. 9.

   We did not do these things.
   --Ld. Lytton.

   You can not do wrong without suffering wrong.
   --Emerson. Hence: To do homage, honor, favor, justice, etc., to render homage, honor, etc.

5. To bring to an end by action; to perform completely; to finish; to accomplish; -- a sense conveyed by the construction, which is that of the past participle done. ``Ere summer half be done.'' ``I have done weeping.''
   --Shak.

6. To make ready for an object, purpose, or use, as food by cooking; to cook completely or sufficiently; as, the meat is done on one side only.

7. To put or bring into a form, state, or condition, especially in the phrases, to do death, to put to death; to slay; to do away (often do away with), to put away; to remove; to do on, to put on; to don; to do off, to take off, as dress; to doff; to do into, to put into the form of; to translate or transform into, as a text.

   Done to death by slanderous tongues. -- Shak.

   The ground of the difficulty is done away. -- Paley.

   Suspicions regarding his loyalty were entirely done away.
   --Thackeray.

   To do on our own harness, that we may not; but we must do on the armor of God. -- Latimer.

   Then Jason rose and did on him a fair Blue woolen tunic. -- W. Morris (Jason).

   Though the former legal pollution be now done off, yet there is a spiritual contagion in idolatry as much to be shunned.
   --Milton.

   It [``Pilgrim's Progress''] has been done into verse: it has been done into modern English. -- Macaulay.

8. To cheat; to gull; to overreach. [Colloq.]

   He was not be done, at his time of life, by frivolous offers of a compromise that might have secured him seventy-five per cent. -- De Quincey.

9. To see or inspect; to explore; as, to do all the points of interest. [Colloq.]

10. (Stock Exchange) To cash or to advance money for, as a bill or note.

11. To perform work upon, about, for, or at, by way of caring for, looking after, preparing, cleaning, keeping in order, or the like.

    The sergeants seem to do themselves pretty well.
    --Harper's Mag.

12. To deal with for good and all; to finish up; to undo; to ruin; to do for. [Colloq. or Slang]

    Sometimes they lie in wait in these dark streets, and fracture his skull, . . . or break his arm, or cut the sinew of his wrist; and that they call doing him.
    --Charles Reade.

    Note: (a) Do and did are much employed as auxiliaries, the verb to which they are joined being an infinitive. As an auxiliary the verb do has no participle. ``I do set my bow in the cloud.''
    --Gen. ix.

13. [Now archaic or rare except for emphatic assertion.] Rarely . . . did the wrongs of individuals to the knowledge of the public. -- Macaulay. (b) They are often used in emphatic construction. ``You don't say so, Mr. Jobson. -- but I do say so.'' --Sir W. Scott. ``I did love him, but scorn him now.'' --Latham. (c) In negative and interrogative constructions, do and did are in common use. I do not wish to see them; what do you think? Did C[ae]sar cross the Tiber? He did not. ``Do you love me?'' --Shak. (d) Do, as an auxiliary, is supposed to have been first used before imperatives. It expresses entreaty or earnest request; as, do help me. In the imperative mood, but not in the indicative, it may be used with the verb to be; as, do be quiet. Do, did, and done often stand as a general substitute or representative verb, and thus save the repetition of the principal verb. ``To live and die is all we have to do.'' --Denham. In the case of do and did as auxiliaries, the sense may be completed by the infinitive (without to) of the verb represented. ``When beauty lived and died as flowers do now.'' --Shak. ``I . . . chose my wife as she did her wedding gown.'' --Goldsmith. My brightest hopes giving dark fears a being. As the light does the shadow. -- Longfellow. In unemphatic affirmative sentences do is, for the most part, archaic or poetical; as, ``This just reproach their virtue does excite.'' --Dryden. To do one's best, To do one's diligence (and the like), to exert one's self; to put forth one's best or most or most diligent efforts. ``We will . . . do our best to gain their assent.'' --Jowett (Thucyd.). To do one's business, to ruin one. [Colloq.] --Wycherley. To do one shame, to cause one shame. [Obs.] To do over.

    1. To make over; to perform a second time.

    2. To cover; to spread; to smear. ``Boats . . . sewed together and done over with a kind of slimy stuff like rosin.'' --De Foe. To do to death, to put to death. (See 7.) [Obs.] To do up.

       1. To put up; to raise. [Obs.]
          --Chaucer.

       2. To pack together and envelop; to pack up.

    3. To accomplish thoroughly. [Colloq.]

    4. To starch and iron. ``A rich gown of velvet, and a ruff done up with the famous yellow starch.''
       --Hawthorne.

       To do way, to put away; to lay aside. [Obs.]
       --Chaucer.

       To do with, to dispose of; to make use of; to employ; -- usually preceded by what. ``Men are many times brought to that extremity, that were it not for God they would not know what to do with themselves.''
       --Tillotson.

       To have to do with, to have concern, business or intercourse with; to deal with. When preceded by what, the notion is usually implied that the affair does not concern the person denoted by the subject of have. ``Philology has to do with language in its fullest sense.''
       --Earle. ``What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah?
       --2 Sam. xvi. 10.

Old English dyde, past tense of do (v.). The only remainder in Germanic of the old linguistic pattern of forming a past tense by reduplication of the stem of the present tense. Far back in Germanic the equivalent of did was used as a suffix to make the past tenses of other verbs, hence the English -ed suffix (Old English -de).\n

vb. (en-simple past of: do)

1. n. an uproarious party [syn: bash, brawl]

2. the syllable naming the first (tonic) note of any major scale in solmization [syn: doh, ut]

3. doctor's degree in osteopathy [syn: Doctor of Osteopathy]

4. [also: done, did]

1. v. engage in; "make love, not war"; "make an effort"; "do research"; "do nothing"; "make revolution" [syn: make]

2. carry out or perform an action; "John did the painting, the weeding, and he cleaned out the gutters"; "the skater executed a triple pirouette"; "she did a little dance" [syn: perform, execute]

3. get (something) done; "I did my job" [syn: perform]

4. proceed or get along; "How is she doing in her new job?"; "How are you making out in graduate school?"; "He's come a long way" [syn: fare, make out, come, get along]

5. give rise to; cause to happen or occur, not always intentionally; "cause a commotion"; "make a stir"; "cause an accident" [syn: cause, make]

6. carry out or practice; as of jobs and professions; "practice law" [syn: practice, practise, exercise]

7. be sufficient; be adequate, either in quality or quantity; "A few words would answer"; "This car suits my purpose well"; "Will $100 do?"; "A 'B' grade doesn't suffice to get me into medical school"; "Nothing else will serve" [syn: suffice, answer, serve]

8. create or design, often in a certain way; "Do my room in blue"; "I did this piece in wood to express my love for the forest" [syn: make] [ant: unmake]

9. behave in a certain manner; show a certain behavior; conduct or comport oneself; "You should act like an adult"; "Don't behave like a fool"; "What makes her do this way?"; "The dog acts ferocious, but he is really afraid of people" [syn: act, behave]

10. spend time in prison or in a labor camp; "He did six years for embezzlement" [syn: serve]

11. carry on or manage; "We could do with a little more help around here" [syn: manage]

12. arrange attractively; "dress my hair for the wedding" [syn: dress, arrange, set, coif, coiffe, coiffure]

13. travel or traverse (a distance); "This car does 150 miles per hour"; "We did 6 miles on our hike every day"

14. [also: done, did]

See do

DID may refer to:

In arts:

• Damsel in distress, a classic theme in world literature, art and film
• Dialogue in the Dark, an awareness-raising exhibition

In media:

• Dance India Dance, a reality dance show on Zee TV, first aired in 2009
• Desert Island Discs, a long-running BBC Radio 4 programme, presented since 2006 by Kirsty Young

In military:

• Defeat in detail, a military term in which a large force decisively defeats a smaller force with minimal losses
• Defense in depth, a military strategy for defense

In technology:

• Data item descriptions, describing the content of sections in a file or document
• Defense in depth (computing), an information assurance strategy
• Digital Image Design, a video game developer
• Direct inward dialing, in telephony

In other uses:

• Développement International Desjardins, a subsidiary of the Quebec-based Desjardins Group
• Didcot Parkway railway station (National Rail station code), a railway station in England
• Difference in differences, an approach for statistical estimation of treatment effects
• Dissociative identity disorder, a psychiatric diagnosis sometimes known as "multiple personality disorder"