English Explanatory Dictionary

do well by doing good

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To achieve social acceptance or financial success as a result of behaving in a benevolent or charitable manner.

Pronunciation

en-au-do well by doing good.ogg

Word forms

do well by doing good does well by doing good doing well by doing good did well by doing good done well by doing good

Etymology

The origin is unknown; in use since the mid-20th century. Although the phrase is sometimes attributed to Benjamin Franklin, the earliest documented usage is from Tom Lehrer's 1953 novelty song "The Old Dope Peddler."

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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