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Glite Dictionary
to do (someone) in

to do (someone) in

8 8.3
Make someone very tired or unable to continue
  • phrasal verb
  • Informal
translation icon : agotar
  • The long hours of work finally did him in, and he couldn’t continue.
  • really do me in
  • gonna do you in
  • want to do in

Examples

  • It did me in.

    Coyote Ugly (2000)

  • I think the chances are that Russia is allowed to do us in the end.

    Blog text (33)

  • You think she did him in?

    Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical (2022)

  • -They almost did you in.

    The Wicker Man (2006)

  • There was no call for him to do her in.

    Frenzy (1972)

  • "The weather can do a man in all right."

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Or maybe I'll just do you in.

    Brick (2006)

  • It's the head wound that did him in.

    M*A*S*H (1970)

  • My greed did me in?

    Fiction book (1998)

  • The Board of Regents thought they could do us in by saying that, no, you have to bargain for the whole state.

    Blog text (16)

Synonyms

to do a number on
vsto do (someone) in
  • Informal
22 8.6

To harm someone or something very badly

targets ability to continue often by overpowering or making them unable to act
to run (someone) ragged
vsto do (someone) in
  • Informal
5 7.5

Make someone very tired by giving them too much work

causes collapse or failure by overpowering someone and stopping them

Antonyms

to revive
71 4.1

To make a person conscious again after fainting

How Incapacitated

to kill
  • NSFW
∞ 1.0
to overwhelm
42 4.0
to do (someone) in
  • Informal
8 8.3
to exhaust
194 3.2
to tire
23 1.0

Surface Forms

do in infinitive
doing in present participle
does in third person singular
did in past
done in past participle

Morphology

do + (someone) + in

The idiomatic verb 'do (someone) in' (meaning to defeat, exhaust, or kill) cannot be reliably derived from 'do' (to cause) plus the particle 'in' because 'in' does not contribute a clear compositional sense that yields those outcomes. A B1 learner who knows the constituents would be unlikely to predict this idiomatic meaning without prior exposure, so it is unpredictable and language-specific.

Etymology

Do (someone) in may come from the old picture of giving someone a final hit that ends a fight and leaves them unable to move, so they are completely 'done'. That's why it now means 'to defeat', 'to exhaust', or 'to overwhelm' someone.