do to death
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English
[edit]Verb
[edit]do to death (third-person singular simple present does to death, present participle doing to death, simple past did to death, past participle done to death)
- Of a trope, joke, topic, idea, etc, to use so often that it becomes trite.
- It's hard to find novel screenplays. All the usual stories have been done to death.
- 2023 January 27, Battleship New Jersey, 4:07 from the start, in Maintaining Your Battleship: Jan 2023 Update[1]:
- If you're interested in the process we're using for redecking the ship, we've absolutely done that to death. There's links to several different videos in the description below.
- (obsolete) To put to death.
- 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act IV:
- So will I not […] Behold ſo many of my country men,
All done to death and ſtrangled in one day, […]
Usage notes
[edit]Sense 1 is usually seen in passive or past perfect constructions (e.g. "done to death.")