HOW DO YOU DO Definition & Meaning

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how do you do

interjection

(used as a conventional greeting.)

how-do-you-do

[ hou-duh-yuh-doo ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

Informal.

plural how-do-you-dos.

a greeting; salutation:
She smiled and gave him a how-do-you-do fit for a king.
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

sentence substitute

Alsohow do?how d'ye do? a formal greeting said by people who are being introduced to each other or are meeting for the first time

noun

informal.
a difficult situation

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of how do you do¹

First recorded in 1625–35

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Idioms and Phrases

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.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

He added: “How do you do that with this president?”

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"That's how sick these people are, because how do you do that to a mom?"

From

Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly said last month of Ohtani: “He wants to be the most amazing baseball player in the history of the world. How do you do that? You win World Series. And how do you win World Series? You help figure out how to make the club that much better. He made the club that much better when he came to that decision.”

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I go, “Wow! She just doesn’t question herself at all. How do you do that?”

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“The attention that gets put on the director is: How do you do the legislative piece? But really the most important piece is: How do you motivate and help grow young staffers?”

From

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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