to do for
Preserved but no longer current.
To act for or manage for. A man ought to do well for his children; a landlady does for her lodgers. Also, to ruin, destroy, wear out. V II do for him. I'll ruin him utterly, or even, I'll kill him; taken in and done for, cheated and fleeced; this watch is about done for, it's nearly worn out.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Examples
Tatoeba sentence #2028411 (CC BY 2.0 FR, tatoeba.org, retrieved 2026-07-31)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “to do for” mean?
To act for or manage for. A man ought to do well for his children; a landlady does for her lodgers. Also, to ruin, destroy, wear out. V II do for him. I'll ruin him utterly, or even, I'll kill him; taken in and done for, cheated and fleeced; this watch is about done for, it's nearly worn out.
Is “to do for” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.