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.
Do away with those tariffs, the Scotch Whisky Association says, and exports could rise by £1bn over five years.
From BBC • Apr. 21, 2022
Do away with endless sandwiches and make this savory dinner pie instead.
From Salon • Nov. 11, 2021
Do away with nonleague events: First, the individual schools within the York-Adams League should make the call to do away with nonleague competitions through the end of the regular season.
From Washington Times • May 5, 2021
Do away with gender altogether for all I care – I’d be quite happy to identify as “hot mess” in this post-gender utopia and leave it at that.
From The Guardian • Jun. 25, 2015
Do away with Evil from the world, and you would not merely abolish certain specially distressing matters, you would change everything.
From The Feast of St. Friend by Bennett, Arnold
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.
