do time

English

Verb

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

1. (colloquial) To spend time in prison (as a prisoner) or in the military (as a servicemember).

   My wife is unavailable for three months, as she's doing time for fraud.

   • 1996, "Weird Al" Yankovic, “The Night Santa Went Crazy”, in Bad Hair Day‎:

     Yes, Virginia, now Santa's doing time
     In a Federal prison for his infamous crime

Synonyms

• be banged up
• be inside
• do bird
• do porridge
• live at Her Majesty's pleasure
• serve time

Derived terms

• do one's own time
• if you can't do the time, don't do the crime

Translations

colloquial: to spend time in prison

Chinese: Mandarin: 坐班房 (zh) (zuòbānfáng) Czech: bručet (cs), sedět (cs) Danish: sidde inde, afsone, ruske tremmer Finnish: suorittaa rangaistusta, lusia (fi) French: faire de la prison German: sitzen (de), einsitzen (de) Hungarian: börtönben ül Ingrian: istua Polish: siedzieć (pl) impf Russian: сиде́ть (ru) (sidétʹ), мота́ть срок (motátʹ srok), ча́литься (ru) (čálitʹsja) Spanish: cumplir cadena Swedish: skaka galler (sv) Turkish: yatmak (tr) Ukrainian: сиді́ти (uk) (sydíty) Vietnamese: bóc lịch

Anagrams

• -motide, domite, mediot