do away with
Britishverb
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to kill or destroy
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to discard or abolish
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Make an end of, eliminate. For example, The town fathers have decided to do away with the old lighting system .
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Demolish, destroy, kill, as in The animal officer did away with the injured deer lying by the side of the road . In the 13th century both usages were simply put as do away , the with being added only in the late 1700s.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“I just think that we need to do away with that argument,” he said, suggesting it was being pushed by opponents for lack of a coherent vision or winning message of their own.
From Slate • Apr. 29, 2026
Such systems, which do away with the need for a rudder, are already used on smaller CalMac ferries, making them highly manoeuvrable.
From BBC • Mar. 30, 2026
You could do away with that practice, but that’s not what this settlement is going to accomplish.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 10, 2026
Concerns have been brewing among investors that AI could do away with the need for workers across sectors, from insurance to wealth management to real estate.
From MarketWatch • Feb. 27, 2026
These flexible sheets of cedar also allowed Pocock to do away with the endless nailing of planks to the boat’s ribs.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
