Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
do by halves en · VERB
Pronunciation
Meanings
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(idiomatic, in the negative, transitive) To perform (a task, etc) partially or incompletely; to do (something) inadequately, halfheartedly, or shoddily.
Rin-Tin-Tin does nothing by halves, for he tracks the murderer himself and kills him.
1925 Sept. 21, Mordaunt Hall, "The Screen" (film review of The Freshman), New York Times (retrieved 5 March 2014)Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog!
1988, Roald Dahl, Mathilda:[A] pedestrian tour of Europe could not be complete without them. Of course that decided me at once to see them, for I never allow myself to do things by halves, or in a slurring, slipshod way.
1880, Mark Twain, chapter 30, in A Tramp Abroad:If there was one word to describe her, it was "intense" - so well chosen in her brother Michael's moving eulogy. Nothing, absolutely nothing was done by halves. . . . Her commitment was total.
2005 April 8, Claus Moser, “Obituary: Jane Attenborough”, in The Guardian, UK, retrieved 05 Mar 2014:
Forms