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Glite Dictionary
to do out of

to do out of

11 8.4
Cheat someone so they lose money or other things they should have
  • phrasal verb
  • UK
translation icon : privar a alguien de
  • Anything you do out of fear is cheating the process it is supposed to address, especially voting.

Examples

  • But but just to be clear, they didn't do this out of the goodness of their hearts, right?

  • It was done out of love for you.

    After Ever Happy (2022)

  • Librarians can provide materials and even programming with the knowledge that they are doing so out of professional responsibility.

    Academic text (2011)

  • Nobody's going to do me out of my reward.

    Five Came Back (1939)

  • "I don't do it out of selfishness."

    Fiction book (1991)

  • I won't let anyone do me out of my inheritance.

  • She felt cheated when they tried to do her out of the promotion she deserved.

  • He was furious when he discovered that someone was trying to do him out of his fair share.

Synonyms

to con out of
vsto do out of
  • Slang
6 8.1

To trick someone into giving you their money or other things

deprives someone of what they deserved or expected by dishonest means
to do someone a lemon
vsto do out of
  • UK
9.9

Trick someone so they end up worse off

takes away what someone deserved or expected through unfair trickery

Antonyms

to give
∞ 1.0

To cause a result, feeling, or change

How Deprived

to rob
696 1.2
to deprive
198 3.2
to do out of
  • UK
11 8.4
cheat
15 2.8
to withhold
210 5.1

Surface Forms

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

Morphology

do + out + of

The core idea of removal or deprivation is hinted at by the constituents — 'do' (cause) combined with 'out of' (indicating being without or removed from) — so a learner could plausibly infer loss. However, the specific idiomatic sense ‘deprive someone of something, often by dishonest means’ and the fixed phrasal pattern are not fully predictable from the parts, making the expression partially but not wholly transparent to a B1 learner.

Etymology

The phrasal verb do out of gives a simple image: someone does something and leaves another person out of their money or prize, as if taking it away from them. That's why it means 'to cheat someone and take what they deserve'.