▪ I. done, ppl. a. (n.)
(dʌn)
[pa. pple. of do v., q.v. for forms and participial uses.]
1. a. Performed, executed, accomplished, finished, ended, settled; also, used up, worn out: see do v.
| 1435 Misyn Fire of Love i. xxx. (1896) 65 Done synnes it hidys. 1665 Cotton Poet. Wks. (1765) 136 She thought 't would be a done Thing Soon. 1804 J. Larwood No Gun Boats 29 What l'Eveque only contemplated as a remote probability, [he] now considers as a done thing. 1844 Dickens Christmas Carol iii, It was a done thing between him and Scrooge's nephew. 1860 Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. III. ci. 2 A done game. |
b. absol. That which is done or accomplished.
| 1855 Browning Last Ride Together, Contrast The petty Done, the Undone vast. 1872 Ruskin Arrows of Chace (1880) II. 208 The condemnation given from the judgment throne..is all for the undones and not for the dones. |
c. Colloq. phr. the done thing: the accepted, correct, or fashionable action or mode of behaviour; = thing n.1 15 a.
| 1922 C. E. Montague Disenchantment iv. 57 Others were anxious lest the taking of steep and thorny paths..should come to be ‘the done thing’. 1940 Harrisson & Madge War begins at Home iv. 88 Interview results..show more people in favour of..the ‘done thing’ than written results, where people are..more candid. 1953 N. Fitzgerald Midsummer Malice ii. 32, I expect he made a pass at you. He still thinks it is the done thing in the theatre. |
† 2. There was in ME. a curious use of done, in which it was nearly synonymous with kin = ‘kind of’: thus many done, many kinds of, what done, ‘what-kin’, what sort of. At length, it took, like kin, a genitival s: thus, what-dones, what dons = ‘whatkins’, cujus generis, of what kind of. Obs.
[There is a certain parallelism between this and the MDu. use of the inf. doen (as of MLG. dôn, dônt, MHG. tuon), which has the sense-development ‘doing, action, manner of doing, way of acting or being, manner, nature, wise, kind’. But in Eng. the stages by which the sense ‘kind’ was reached are less clear.]
| 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 112 He askede, wat God [Trin. MS. what Idone god; Digby MS. what manere god.] and wat þing Mercurius was. 1340–70 Alex. & Dind. 222 We discorden of dede in many done þinguus. Ibid. 999 Wiþ-oute diuerce dedus of many done þingus. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xviii. 298 What dones man was Jhesus. a 1400–50 Alexander 2906 Quat dones man ert þou? Ibid. 5167 Quat dons man ert bou?..and quat dos þou here. |
▪ II. done, adv. Sc. ? Obs.
Also 6 doyn, 8– doon, doons, dunze.
[perh. adv. use of prec.; but cf. dooms.]
Thoroughly, very, exceedingly.
| 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxvi. 82 Bot sa done tyrsum it is to byd it. 1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1821) I. p. xliv, Thir mussillis ar sa doyn gleg of twiche and heryng. 1715 P. Many's Truth's Trav. in Pennecuik's Poems 106 (Jam.) He was not thence so doons severe. 1825–80 Jamieson s.v. Doyn, Doon weil, or dunze weil, very well. |
▪ III. done
obs. form of down adv.