do up
See also: doup
English edit
Pronunciation edit
Audio (AU) (file)
Verb edit
do up (third-person singular simple present does up, present participle doing up, simple past did up, past participle done up)
- (transitive, idiomatic) To fasten (a piece of clothing, etc.); to tighten (a nut etc.)
- I can't do up my shirt. The button is missing.
- Help me do up this zipper.
- You hold it in place while I do up the nut.
- (transitive, idiomatic, colloquial) To redecorate (a room, etc.); to make improvements to (a home or domestic property).
- I'm going to do up the living room next.
- They've done up the house so that they can sell it more easily.
- 1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:
- If I had been asked what was the rent of the house, I should have said, at the most, not more than twenty pounds, — because, between you and me, it wants a good bit of doing up, and is hardly fit to live in as it stands.
- 2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 3:
- So many people were doing up their apartments that supplies of high-grade fixtures and fittings were at a premium.
- (transitive, idiomatic, informal) To execute a task or performance.
- This time I'm going to do it up right.
- (transitive, idiomatic) To pack together and envelop; to pack up.
- I did up the parcel with string and took it to the post office.
- (transitive, dated) To accomplish thoroughly.
- (transitive, archaic) To starch and iron.
- 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 20, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:
- a rich gown of velvet, and a ruff done up with the famous yellow starch
- (slang) To beat up; to physically assault.
Usage notes edit
The object may appear before or after the particle. If the object is a pronoun, then it must be before the particle.
Antonyms edit
- (antonym(s) of "fasten clothing"): undo