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 (lyrics and music), “The Night Santa Went Crazy”, in Bad Hair Day‎^[1]:

     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)
• Swedish: skaka galler (sv)
• Turkish: yatmak (tr)
• Ukrainian: сиді́ти (uk) (sydíty)
• Vietnamese: bóc lịch

Anagrams

• -motide, domite, mediot