From do + -n't.
Depending on dialect, its use in the third-person singular may be from elision (in these dialects does is used when not in the negative) or from not using -s to mark the third-person singular at all.
Meanings
Stop!
Forms
Spelling
Features
Labels
Source
do n't
alternative, obsolete
lexicographic
Translations (16)
ru не надо! (interjection) · sv låt bli! (interjection) · hu állj le (interjection) · taa ena' (interjection) · cmn 甭價 /甭价 (interjection) · sv nej! (interjection) · cmn 別價 /别价 (interjection) · fi seis (interjection) · sv stopp! (interjection) · pam patugut (interjection) · cmn 甭 (interjection) · mi kauaka (interjection) · ru стой! (interjection) · pam tuknang (interjection) · mi kauraka (interjection) · cmn 别 (interjection)
From do + -n't.
Depending on dialect, its use in the third-person singular may be from elision (in these dialects does is used when not in the negative) or from not using -s to mark the third-person singular at all.
Meanings
Chiefly in dos and don'ts: something that must or should not be done.
And here’s one universal selfie don’t - if the setting is your bathroom, or any bathroom for that matter, it has no place in your Tinder lineup. Not hot. 2025 October 1, Ally Jones, “A Step-By-Step Guide To Delete Tinder & Start Over (& When You Shouldn't)”, in Vida Select:
Among the don'ts he had done before he was twenty-one were peyote, alcohol, mescaline, and Methedrine. 1968, Joan Didion, “Slouching towards Bethlehem”, in Slouching Towards Bethlehem:
From do + -n't.
Depending on dialect, its use in the third-person singular may be from elision (in these dialects does is used when not in the negative) or from not using -s to mark the third-person singular at all.
Meanings
Do not (negative auxiliary).
Don't you think mom's awfully busy today?
Don't be such a nuisance!
Far be 't from lust; such wildfire ne'er / Shall dare to lurk or kindle here; / Diviner flames shall in our fancies roll, / Which do n't [sic] depress / To earthliness, / But elevate the soul. 1646, John Hall, Poems, Cambridge, page 55:
1990, Dave Mustaine, "Take No Prisoners", Megadeth, Rust in Peace.
Don't ask what you can do for your country / Ask what your country can do for you
Why don't I carry those bags for you?
Scott Pelley: As Ukraine succeeds on the battlefield, Vladimir Putin is becoming embarrassed and pushed into a corner, and I wonder Mr. President what you would say to him if he is considering using chemical or tactical nuclear weapons. / Biden: Don't. Don't. Don't. It would change the face of war unlike anything since World War II. 2022 September 16, Joe Biden, quotee, 0:00 from the start, in President Biden warns Vladimir Putin not to use nuclear weapons: "Don't. Don't. Don't.", CBS News, archived from the original on 16 Sep 2022:
Don't stand, Don't stand so, Don't stand so close to me. 1980, The Police, "Don't Stand So Close to Me", Zenyatta Mondatta, A&M Records
“I don't know how you and the ‘head,’ as you call him, will get on, but I do know that if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there'll be trouble. […]” 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
(nonstandard) Does not.
Love don't come easy, I know that it don't 2017, “Rico Acid”, Emily Blue (music):
My girlfriend's jealous 'cause I talk about you twenty-four seven / But she don't know you like I know you, Slim, no one does / She don't know what it was like for people like us growing up / You gotta call me man, I'll be the biggest fan you'll ever lose 2000, “Stan”, in Eminem (music), The Marshall Mathers LP:
She don't like the flash, wanna keep us in the dark / She don't like the fame, baby when we're miles apart 2012, “She Don't Like the Lights”, in Justin Bieber (music), Believe:
But it don't matter how your love feels anymore / It'll never be the cure 2026, Olivia Rodrigo, Dan Nigro, “The Cure”, in You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love:
L. C. Baron. That don't alter the Pronunciation. It is the same Name. 1717, The Tryal of Francis Francia, for High Treason, at the Sessions-House in the Old-Bailey; On Tuesday Jan. 22. 1716. Perused by the Right Honourable The Lord Chief-Baron Bury: And also by The Council for His Majesty, and for the Prisoner., London: D. Midwinter, page 31:
My mother knows old Mr. Laurence, but says he’s very proud and don’t like to mix with his neighbors. 1868–1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter II, in Little Women: […], (please specify |part=1 or 2), Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, saies he. Blessed are those that mourn. He don't say, Blessed are those that rejoyce; or, Blessed are those that have the Assurance of Gods love; or, Blessed are those that are strong in Grace: No, but doest thou know a poor weak, Christian, a mourning soul like a Dove of the Valleys; saies the Lord, I blesse him. 1649, William Bridge, edited by William Greenhill, John Yates, and William Adderley, The Works of William Bridge, Sometime Fellow of Emmanuel College in Cambridg: Now Preacher of the Word of God at Yarmouth, volume 1, London: Peter Cole, page 85:
The highway don't care 2013, “Highway Don't Care”, in Tim McGraw (music), Two Lanes of Freedom:
[Lord Chancellor] Allow me, as an old equity draftsman, to make a suggestion. The subtleties of the legal mind are equal to the emergency. The thing is really quite simple – the insertion of a single word will do it. Let it stand that every fairy shall die who don’t marry a mortal, and there you are, out of your difficulty at once! 1882, W. S. Gilbert, An entirely original fairy opera, in two acts, entitled, Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri, London: Chappell & Co, page 38:
I sure hope the road don’t come to own me. 1971, Carol King, “So Far Away”, Tapestry, Ode Records
(qualifier:African-American Vernacular) Used before an emphatic negative subject.
tl huwag (do not) · nn ikkje (do not) · mn бүү (do not) · mnc ᡠᠮᡝ (do not) · bg не (do not) · yi נישט (do not) · nan-hbl 毋通 (do not) · yoi な (do not) · kzg な (do not) · bn না (do not) · khb ᦊᦱᧈ (do not) · ka არ გააკეთო (do not) · zu kahle (do not) · zu musa (do not) · cdo 莫 (do not) · hi मत (do not) · ka ნუ (do not) · sh ne (do not) · cmn 別 /别 (do not) · rom ma (do not) · mg aza (do not) · mnc ᠊ᡴᡡ (do not) · cmn 不 (do not) · mn ᠪᠢᠲᠡᠬᠡᠢ (do not) · nan-hbl 莫 (do not) · hak 莫 (do not) · sk ne (do not) · he אל (do not) · bsh nā (do not) · my မ verb နဲ့ (do not) · sv verb ...inte (do not) · be не (do not) · pt não (do not) · cmn 別價 /别价 (do not) · ms jangan (do not) · fi älkää (do not) · mk не (do not) · ask mā (do not) · yox な (do not) · pam tuknang (do not) · pam ali (do not) · cs ne- (do not) · ur مت (do not) · cy peidio (do not) · nan-hbl 伓通 (do not) · ja ...ないでください (do not) · fr ne... verb ...point (do not) · sco dinnae (do not) · io ne (do not) · mvi な (do not) · yue 唔好 (do not) · prn nā (do not) · mn битгий (do not) · ko 지 말다 (do not) · hi न (do not) · pam patugut (do not) · id jangan (do not) · sl ne (do not) · pl nie (do not) · fr ne... verb ...pas (do not) · pam e (do not) · dng бу (do not) · okn な (do not) · ryu な (do not) · hu ne (do not) · cmn 别介 (do not) · hak 毋使 (do not) · vi đừng (do not) · cdo 伓通 (do not) · ur نـ (do not) · ams な (do not) · ro nu (do not) · hu nem (do not) · tkn な (do not) · km កុំ (do not) · dng бо (do not) · sh nemoj (do not) · it non (do not) · cmn 不要 (do not) · ar لَا (do not) · rys な (do not) · mnp 莫 (do not) · wbk mā (do not) · lo ຢ່າ (do not) · ryn な (do not) · cy na (do not) · wuu 𧟰 (do not) · sh немој (do not) · zu musani (do not) · af moenie (do not) · sa मा (do not) · xug な (do not) · fa نکن (do not) · mn ᠪᠦᠦ (do not) · ca no (do not) · dng бә (do not) · mn -гүй (do not) · ka არ (do not) · nb ikke (do not) · fi älä (do not) · ga ná (do not) · wuu 勿要 (do not) · yi ניט (do not) · sq mos (do not) · zu kahleni (do not) · mn ᠦᠭᠡᠢ (do not) · yue 咪 (do not) · uk не (do not) · ru не (do not) · es no (do not) · th อย่า (do not) · sh не (do not)