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Derring-do is a quirky holdover from Middle English that came to occupy its present place in the language by a series of mistakes and misunderstandings. In Middle English, dorring don meant simply "daring to do." The phrase was misprinted as derrynge do in a 15th-century work by poet John Lydgate, and Edmund Spenser took it up from there. (A glossary to Spenser's work defined it as "manhood and chevalrie.") Literary author Sir Walter Scott and others brought the noun into modern use.
Examples of derring-do in a Sentence
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Agatha All Along and WandaVision both use penultimate flashbacks before arriving at a grand finale of superhero trauma-therapy derring-do.
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Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 19 Nov. 2025
Ziva and Tony aren’t technically spies or cops when the series starts, but old derring-do habits die hard.
—Chris Willman, Variety, 4 Sep. 2025
Over the years, she has been pressed into service as an avatar of patient humility or assertive feminism, of American expansionism or Indigenous rights, of Jeffersonian derring-do or native wisdom.
—Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 1 Aug. 2025
When alone, Lois chides him over the journalistic ethics of interviewing himself after some derring-do, and questions his flying into countries without their leaders’ approval.
—Jake Coyle, Mercury News, 10 July 2025
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Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 19 Nov. 2025
Ziva and Tony aren’t technically spies or cops when the series starts, but old derring-do habits die hard.
—Chris Willman, Variety, 4 Sep. 2025
Over the years, she has been pressed into service as an avatar of patient humility or assertive feminism, of American expansionism or Indigenous rights, of Jeffersonian derring-do or native wisdom.
—Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 1 Aug. 2025
When alone, Lois chides him over the journalistic ethics of interviewing himself after some derring-do, and questions his flying into countries without their leaders’ approval.
—Jake Coyle, Mercury News, 10 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for derring-do
Cite this Entry
“Derring-do.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/derring-do. Accessed 29 Nov. 2025.
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