done for
30
7.7
- idiom
- Informal
- So my point is, hope is if you lose hope, you're done for, then they're definitely going to win, right?
Loading YouTube…
Watch on YouTubeI think he was done for, gone too soon.
- I think he was done for, gone too soon.
Examples
-
If we can't find a solution soon, our project is done for and won't succeed.
-
I think he was done for, gone too soon.
-
And once you're done with the five days, you're done for for three months.
-
Without help, we're completely done for and won't survive the storm.
-
After that last mistake, I felt like my chances were done for.
Synonyms
275
5.3
With no hope of being saved or helped
220
4.9
Certain to have a bad end, like failure or destruction
154
5.5
No longer alive
135
4.4
No longer able to continue or succeed
21
7.5
Certain to fail and unable to recover
13
8.2
No longer working because it is broken or destroyed
Antonyms
How Doomed
- Informal
30
7.7
∞
2.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
done + for
There is a visible link between 'done' (finished) and the MWE meaning of being finished or ruined, but the preposition 'for' is semantically bleached here and the phrase functions as a fixed idiom meaning 'doomed' rather than a fully compositional combination. A B1 learner who knows the words may guess a sense of completion or trouble, but would likely not reliably infer the stronger idiomatic sense 'unable to be saved' without prior exposure.
Etymology
The phrase done for may come from the simple idea of something being done (finished) and marked for throwing away, like a broken tool left beside the road. Once it is 'done' and left like that it cannot be saved, so done for came to mean 'doomed' or 'unable to be saved'.