do someone brown

English

Etymology

A play on two senses of do: to cheat, and to cook food, which may be brown when cooked thoroughly.

Verb

do someone brown (third-person singular simple present does someone brown, present participle doing someone brown, simple past did someone brown, past participle done someone brown)

1. (slang, dated) To deceive someone thoroughly; to take in completely.
   • 1848, William Hamilton Maxwell, Brian O'Linn: Or, Luck is Everything, page 164:

     How could he be safe against Master Dickey doing him brown?

   • 1919, Pastoral Review, volume 29, page 723:

     His only defeats were sustained in the Caulfield Guineas, when Malt King put him down, and the same horse “did him brown”– over a mile only each time, mark you—in the All Aged Stakes at Flemington.

   • 1961, Arthur Hailey, “Chapter Eleven: The White House”, in In High Places (fiction; e-book, hardcover, paperback):

     James Howden dropped into an upholstered wing chair. “They certainly did us brown last night,” he remarked. “You’d think if they are making a switch, being considerate and so on, they’d be a bit more subtle.”

Related terms

• done brown
• do it up brown