how do you do
interjection
(used as a conventional greeting.)
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how do you do
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how-do-you-do
how-do-you-donouna greeting; salutation.
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how do you do?
how do you do?A conventional greeting used mostly after being introduced to someone, as in And this is our youngest—say “How do you do” to Mr. Smith. Although it is a question, it requires no reply. Originally, in the 1600s, this expression was an inquiry after a person's health or standing, how do you do meaning “how do you fare?” Today we usually express this as How are you? or How are you doing? or How goes it? or How's it going? Even more general are the slangy locutions How are things? or How's tricks? All of these greetings date from the first half of the 1900s.
how do you do
1 Americaninterjection
how-do-you-do
2
American
[hou-duh-yuh-doo]
/ ˈhaʊ də jəˈdu /
Also
how-de-do
noun
Informal.
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how-do-you-dos
plural
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a greeting; salutation.
She smiled and gave him a how-do-you-do fit for a king.
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an awkward or unpleasant event or situation.
It's a fine how-do-you-do that they've refused to help us out.
how do you do
British
noun
how do you do?
Idioms
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of how-do-you-do
First recorded in 1625–35
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.
See Examples For:
“We were doing it because everybody loves it. So how do you do a show that’s beloved with someone that doesn’t love it?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2026
"That's how sick these people are, because how do you do that to a mom?"
From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2024
"I've been down to my local bar with these old boys saying 'see that skateboarding on the TV, how do you do that?'" he said.
From BBC ● May 29, 2024
"And how do you do that? You exercise and follow a healthy diet."
From Science Daily ● May 16, 2024
“Milo, how do you do it ?” Yossarian inquired with laughing amazement and admiration.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
After the usual how-do-you-do, they begin performing for each other and quickly slide into enchanted sync.
From New York Times ● Aug. 11, 2022
When your first how-do-you-do is followed moments later by being thrown into the trenches of work, there’s no time or reason for last names and family history.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 6, 2021
At the door was their neighbor, Geoff Prentiss, just delivering a neighborly how-do-you-do.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 7, 2019
One of them asked why U2 thought they could embed themselves in people’s phones without so much as a how-do-you-do.
From New York Times ● Nov. 9, 2014
When she finished, she and her length of yellow silk swept out of the store without so much as a how-do-you-do to me.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
“We were doing it because everybody loves it. So how do you do a show that’s beloved with someone that doesn’t love it?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2026
And I said, "Okay, how do you do that?"
From Salon ● Oct. 8, 2024
"I've been down to my local bar with these old boys saying 'see that skateboarding on the TV, how do you do that?'" he said.
From BBC ● May 29, 2024
"And how do you do that? You exercise and follow a healthy diet."
From Science Daily ● May 16, 2024
Violet and Klaus moved forward to shake his hand and say how do you do.
From "The Bad Beginning" by Lemony Snicket
At a cocktail party for about 50 notables at a suite in his hotel, Charlie and Oona came late, sat down, and limited their conversation pretty much to how-do-you-dos.
From Time Magazine Archive
Tony had got off duty to come and meet us; and after the first "how-do-you-dos," his mother began bombarding him with questions.
From Secret History Revealed By Lady Peggy O'Malley by Clarence H. (Clarence Herbert) Rowe
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.
