don't

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See also: dont and dönt

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology[edit]

From do +‎ -n't.

Depending on dialect, its use in the third-person singular may be from elision (in these dialects "does" is used when not in the negative) or from not using -s to mark the third-person singular at all.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (UK) IPA(key): /dəʊnt/, [dəʊ̯nt̚], enPR: dōnt
  • (US) IPA(key): /doʊnt/, [dõʊ̯̃(ʔ)t̚], [doʊ̯n], [dõʔ]
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -əʊnt

Verb[edit]

don't

  1. do not (negative auxiliary[1])
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
      “I don't know how you and the ‘head,’ as you call him, will get on, but I do know that if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there'll be trouble. […] ”
    • 1980, The Police, "Don't Stand So Close to Me", Zenyatta Mondatta, A&M Records:
      Don't stand, Don't stand so, Don't stand so close to me.
    • 1990, Dave Mustaine, "Take No Prisoners", Megadeth, Rust in Peace.
      Don't ask what you can do for your country / Ask what your country can do for you
    • 2022 September 16, Joe Biden, quotee, 0:00 from the start, in President Biden warns Vladimir Putin not to use nuclear weapons: "Don't. Don't. Don't."‎[1], CBS News, archived from the original on 16 September 2022‎[2]:
      Scott Pelley: As Ukraine succeeds on the battlefield, Vladimir Putin is becoming embarrassed and pushed into a corner, and I wonder Mr. President what you would say to him if he is considering using chemical or tactical nuclear weapons.
      Biden: Don't. Don't. Don't. It would change the face of war unlike anything since World War II.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:don't.
  2. (nonstandard) does not
    • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 2, in Little Women:
      My mother knows old Mr. Laurence, but says he’s very proud and don’t like to mix with his neighbors.
    • 1971, Carol King, “So Far Away”, Tapestry, Ode Records:
      I sure hope the road don’t come to own me.
    • 2000, “Stan”, in Eminem (music), The Marshall Mathers LP:
      My girlfriend's jealous 'cause I talk about you twenty-four seven / But she don't know you like I know you, Slim, no one does / She don't know what it was like for people like us growing up / You gotta call me man, I'll be the biggest fan you'll ever lose
    • 2012, “She Don't Like the Lights”, in Justin Bieber (music), Believe:
      She don't like the flash, wanna keep us in the dark / She don't like the fame, baby when we're miles apart
    • 2013, “Highway Don't Care”, in Tim McGraw (music), Two Lanes of Freedom:
      The highway don't care
    • 2017, “Rico Acid”, Emily Blue (music):
      Love don't come easy, I know that it don't
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:don't.
  3. (African-American Vernacular) Used before an emphatic negative subject.
    Don’t nobody care.

Usage notes[edit]

In fixed expressions, especially in children's speech, this word can be used positively,[2] most particularly in the construction So don't I in response to a proud statement by the previous speaker.

Translations[edit]

Interjection[edit]

don't

  1. Stop!, Don't touch that!

Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

don't (plural don'ts or don't's)

  1. Something that must not be done (usually in the phrase dos and don'ts).

Antonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Arnold M. Zwicky and Geoffrey K. Pullum, Cliticization vs. Inflection: English n’t, Language 59 (3), 1983, pp. 502–513
  2. ^ So Don't I
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