to do business

217 8.9

To pee or poo, often said about animals and young children

phrasal verb

NSFW

: hacer sus necesidades

My dog always goes outside to do business in the garden.

Examples

When puppies need to do business, they usually whimper to let you know.
It's important to take your child to the park when they need to do business.
You got the money, you wanna do business, or what?

Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)
Give me one reason... ...why I should do business with you.

Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)
You wish to do business with us, yes?

Lethal Weapon (1987)
Pleasure doing business with you.

Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
We do business all the time.

Heat (1995)
Jake: This is the last time I do business with those guys.

Fiction book (1998)
It is a pleasure doing business with you.

Here (2024)
That's the way we do business here.

Beyond Borders (2003)

Synonyms

to make

vsto do business

NSFW

662 9.9

Informal word for peeing, having a bowel movement, or having sex

refers only to urination or defecation and often to animals or children

How Polite

to go to the bathroom

278 1.0

to defecate

Formal

19 7.0

to urinate

69 3.3

to do business

NSFW

217 8.9

to pee

Informal

371 2.6

to shit

Offensive

180 8.9

Surface Forms

do business infinitive

did business past

done business past participle

doing business present participle

does business third person singular

Morphology

do + business

The euphemistic meaning 'to urinate or defecate' is not derivable from the literal senses of 'do' (perform) and 'business' (commercial affairs or matters). This use is an idiomatic, context-dependent euphemism (often for animals/children) and would not be predictable to a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words.

Etymology

Do business may come from using do and business to mean a small private task you must do alone, like going to the toilet. That's why people use do business as a polite way to say 'urinate or defecate', often when talking about children or pets.