do anything

idiom

: to take an action that is considered wrong or suspicious or of particular interest

If he does anything, let me know.

—often used in negative statements

"Why is she mad?" "I don't know. I didn't do anything."

: to be occupied with something

I need to start dinner, but I can't do anything until you get out of the way.

If you're not doing anything this evening, why not come over for dinner?

Examples of do anything in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web He’s got this studio in New Zealand, which can pretty much do anything. —

Chris Willman, Variety, 8 May 2024 That appears to be the theme of this year’s Cubs, who can’t seem to do anything easy. —

Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune, 4 May 2024 Who would do anything—including drop his best friend—to win you over? —

Stephanie McNeal, Glamour, 3 May 2024 Griner was furious but unable to do anything about it. —

J Wortham January Lavoy Krish Seenivasan David Mason, New York Times, 2 May 2024 No, borrowers don't need to do anything, the Education Department said. —

Aimee Picchi, CBS News, 1 May 2024 So if tech companies aren’t going to do anything, what could be realistically possible with our current government, which gets nothing done and doesn’t seem to understand these issues very well? —

David Remnick, The New Yorker, 20 Apr. 2024 Yet foreign governments are in no position to do anything about it. —

Michael Kugelman, TIME, 19 Apr. 2024 Hoda Kotb would do anything to see her daughter perform — including running around New York City all morning. —

Hannah Sacks, Peoplemag, 18 Apr. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'do anything.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.