Wiktionary

don't

See also: dont and dönt

EnglishEdit

 
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EtymologyEdit

From do +‎ -n't.

Depending on dialect, its use in the third-person singular may be from elision or from not using -s to mark the third-person singular at all.

PronunciationEdit

  • (UK) IPA(key): /dəʊnt/
  • (US) IPA(key): /doʊnt/, [dõʊ̯̃(ʔ)t̚], [doʊ̯n]
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)
  • Rhymes: -əʊnt

VerbEdit

don't

  1. do not (negative auxiliary[1])
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 7, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      “I don't know how you and the ‘head,’ as you call him, will get on, but I do know that if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there'll be trouble. […]”
    • 1980, The Police, "Don't Stand So Close to Me", Zenyatta Mondatta, A&M Records:
      Don't Stand, Don't stand so, Don't stand so close to me.
    • 1990, Dave Mustaine, "Take No Prisoners", Megadeth, Rust in Peace.
      Don't ask what you can do for your country / Ask what your country can do for you
  2. (nonstandard) does not
    • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 2, in Little Women:
      My mother knows old Mr. Laurence, but says he’s very proud and don’t like to mix with his neighbors.
    • 1971, Carol King, “So Far Away”, Tapestry, Ode Records:
      I sure hope the road don’t come to own me.
    • 2000, Eminem (music), “Stan”, in The Marshall Mathers LP:
      My girlfriend's jealous 'cause I talk about you twenty-four seven / But she don't know you like I know you, Slim, no one does / She don't know what it was like for people like us growing up / You gotta call me man, I'll be the biggest fan you'll ever lose
    • 2012, Justin Bieber (music), “She Don't Like the Lights”, in Believe:
      She don't like the flash, wanna keep us in the dark / She don't like the fame, baby when we're miles apart
    • 2013, Tim McGraw (music), “Highway Don't Care”, in Two Lanes of Freedom:
      The highway don't care
    • 2017, Emily Blue (music), “Rico Acid”:
      Love don't come easy, I know that it don't
  3. (African-American Vernacular) Used before an emphatic negative subject.
    Don’t nobody care.

TranslationsEdit

InterjectionEdit

don't

  1. Stop!, Don't touch that!

TranslationsEdit

NounEdit

don't (plural don'ts or don't's)

  1. Something that must not be done (usually in the phrase dos and don'ts).

AntonymsEdit

Derived termsEdit

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

  1. ^ Arnold M. Zwicky and Geoffrey K. Pullum, Cliticization vs. Inflection: English n’t, Language 59 (3), 1983, pp. 502–513
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