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Glite Dictionary
to do good

to do good

82 2.4
To help someone by making them healthier or happier
  • phrasal verb
  • /duː ɡʊd/
translation icon : hacer el bien
  • Much work is carried out to ensure that treatments are more likely to do good than harm.
  • do good for others
  • do good work
  • do good things

His insistence is I will do good no matter what.

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Examples

  • I'm doing good, man.

    Undergrads (2022)

  • She loves to volunteer at the shelter because it feels great to do good for those in need.

  • Like people feel good when they do good things for other people.

    Lex Fridman

  • But sometimes, even when we're trying to do good, our efforts can have serious negative effects.

    Academic text (2011)

  • There was a recognition that aid would not do good in countries that had bad economic policies.

    Academic text (1998)

  • I knew I was doing good and serving the God I loved.

    Academic text (2000)

  • When you make friends and you do good things for people, people will bless you.

  • A lot of people want to do good things, but they don't know how.

  • We do good work or we don't.

    North of the 10 (2022)

  • Barack Obama did good things for black Americans.

Synonyms

to benefit
vsto do good
676 2.3

To help someone or be helped by something

focuses specifically on improving a person's health or well being

Antonyms

to harm
738 1.0

To cause a bad effect on people or things

neglect
100 3.5

Not caring for someone or something that needs care

How Helpful

to transform
523 3.4
to do good
82 2.4
support
∞ 1.0
help
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

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

Morphology

do + good

The sense 'to be beneficial' is a straightforward composition of 'do' (to cause or perform) + 'good' (beneficial), so the overall meaning follows directly from the constituents. This verb + adjective collocation is a common, cross-linguistically transparent pattern (e.g. Spanish 'hacer el bien'), so a B1 learner who knows both words is likely to infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Do good comes from the simple picture of someone choosing to do something that brings good to another person, like giving food or care. So it means 'to help' or 'to be beneficial' to someone.