don't

From do +‎ -n't.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dəʊnt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /doʊnt/, [doʊ̯(ʔ)t̚]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊnt

don't

1. do not (negative auxiliary[1])
   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 7, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     “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. […]”

   • The Police, "Don't Stand So Close to Me", Zenyatta Mondatta, A&M Records:

     Don't Stand, Don't stand so, Don't stand so close to me.

2. (nonstandard) does not
   • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 2, in Little Women:

     My mother knows old Mr. Laurence, but says he’s very proud and don’t like to mix with his neighbors.

   • 1971, Carol King, “So Far Away”, Tapestry, Ode Records:

     I sure hope the road don’t come to own me.

   • 2000, Eminem (music), “Stan”, in The Marshall Mathers LP:

     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

   • 2012, Justin Bieber (music), “She Don't Like the Lights”, in Believe:

     She don't like the flash, wanna keep us in the dark / She don't like the fame, baby when we're miles apart

   • 2013, Tim McGraw (music), “Highway Don't Care”, in Two Lanes of Freedom:

     The highway don't care

3. (African American Vernacular) Used before an emphatic negative subject.

   Don’t nobody care.

don't

1. Stop!, Don't touch that!

don't (plural don'ts)

1. Something that must not be done (usually in the phrase dos and don'ts).

• do

• dos and don'ts

• doesn't