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 None of them appeared to do anything, except, perhaps, provide a place to hide money or prop up a scheme. —

Charles Bethea, The New Yorker, 3 July 2024 Its whole job was not to connect to the state internet, not to use email, not to do anything. —

Angela Watercutter, WIRED, 2 July 2024 You’d be assigned a different person and could do anything: just visit them, run errands for them, go [see] them at the hospital. —

Nicole Acheampong, New York Times, 26 June 2024 Movies After ‘The Favourite,’ Yorgos Lanthimos could do anything. —

Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 21 June 2024 See all Example Sentences for do anything

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.