Crossword clues for derring-do
derring-do
The Collaborative International Dictionary
derring-do \derring-do\ n. brave and heroic deeds.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
originally (late 14c.) dorrying don, literally "daring to do," from durring "daring," present participle of Middle English durren "to dare" (see dare (v.)) + don, infinitive of do (v.). Misspelled derrynge do 1500s and mistaken for a noun by Spenser, who took it to mean "manhood and chevalrie;" picked up from him and passed on to Romantic poets as a pseudo-archaism by Sir Walter Scott.
Wiktionary
n. 1 valiant deeds in desperate times. 2 brave and adventurous (albeit often reckless) actions
WordNet
n. brave and heroic deeds
Wikipedia
Derring-Do (1961– January 1978) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He was one of the leading British two-year-olds of 1963 when he won two of his three races including the Cornwallis Stakes. In the next two seasons he developed into a top class racehorse over distances between seven and ten furlongs with his most important wins came in the Hungerford Stakes, Valdoe Stakes and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. He was retired to stud at the end of his four-year-old season and became a successful breeding stallion.
Usage examples of "derring-do".
Gambino squad, assigned to keep tabs on Castellano, would later publish a book in which they describe participating in a derring-do midnight break-in to place the bug, complete with blackened faces and black clothes, knocking out the watchdogs with drugged meat and bypassing the alarm system with only seconds to spare before it went off.
Drake had seen the scene often enough without wanting to play a part in it: dusky coconut culture serves as exotic backdrop for Anglo fantasies of global gaming and sexual derring-do under the rule that out in the non-Christian hinterlands there are no rules, no one is what he seems, and the congenial Welsh twosome you meet over rijsttafel in a restaurant whose wall murals depict a subtle range of lovemaking are, in actuality, ruthless agents of a foreign power who have selected you and your beautiful wife to play unwilling but critical roles in their horrid terrorist scheme.
In a cul-de-sac, they discovered they were surrounded by a circus of bright cover illustrations, holoimages, and advertising flats depicting scenes of derring-do and raw passion, horrible predicaments and turgid romance.
He was no longer Pinch, master of thieves, living his derring-do life in the slums and back alleys.