do one's own time

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Serve one's prison sentence without expecting special treatment

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

phục vụ án tù mà không mong đợi đối xử đặc biệt

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: spend one's own prison term
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

He's doing his own time and won't be paroled early

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “do one's own time” mean?

Serve one's prison sentence without expecting special treatment Literally: spend one's own prison term

Is “do one's own time” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.