Chapter Dominie Sampson to Doomsday Sedgwick of D by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Doncaster Sigebert, monk of Gemblours, in 1100, derived this word from Thong-ceaster, the "Castle of the thong," and says that Hengist and Horsa purchased of the British king as much land as he could encompass with a leather thong. The thong was cut into strips, and encompassed the land occupied by the city of Doncaster.
   This is the old tale of Dido and the hide, and so is the Russian Yakutsks. (See Bursa.)
    Of course it means the "City on the river Don." (Celtic, Don, that which spreads.)

Dondasch' An Oriental giant contemporary with Seth, to whose service he was attached. He needed no weapons, as he could destroy anything by the mere force of his arms.

Done Brown He was done brown. Completely bamboozled or made a fool of. This is a variety of the many expressions of a similar meaning connected with cooking, such as "I gave him a roasting," "I cooked his goose," "I cut him into mince-meat," "I put him into a pretty stew," "I settled his hash," "He was dished up," "He was well dressed" [drubbed], "He was served out," etc. (See Cooking.)

Done For or Regularly done for. Utterly ruined. This "for" is the adverb=thoroughly, very common as a prefix.

Done Up Thoroughly tired and wearied out. Up means ended, completed, as the "game is up" (over, finished), and adverbially it means "completely," hence to be "done up" is to be exhausted completely.

Donegild (3 syl.). The wicked mother of Alla, King of Northumberland. Hating Cunstance because she was a Christian, she put her on a raft with her infant son, and turned her adrift. When Alla returned from Scotland and discovered this cruelty of his mother, he put her to death. (Chaucer: Man of Lawes Tale.)
    The tradition of St. Mungo resembles the Man of Lawes Tale in many respects.

Donkey An ass. It was made to rhyme with "monkey," but is never now so pronounced. The word means a little tawny or dun-coloured animal.
   Donkey. The cross of the donkey's back is popularly attributed to the honour conferred on the beast by our Lord, who rode on an ass in "His triumphant entry" into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. (See Christian Traditions.)
   The donkey means one thing and the driver another. Different people see from different standpoints, their own interest in every case directing their judgment. The allusion is to a fable in Phædrus, where a donkey-driver exhorts his donkey to flee, as the enemy is at hand. The donkey asks if the enemy will load him with double pack-saddles. "No," says the man. "Then," replies the donkey, "what care I whether you are my master or someone else?"
   To ride the black donkey. To be pigheaded, obstinate like a donkey. Black is added, not so much to designate the colour, as to express what is bad.
   Two more, and up goes the donkey - i.e. two pennies more, and the donkey shall be balanced on the top of the pole or ladder. It is said to a braggart, and means - what you have said is wonderful, but if we admit it without gainsaying we shall soon be treated with something still more astounding.
   Who ate the donkey? When the French were in their flight from Spain, after the battle of Vittoria, some stragglers entered a village and demanded rations. The villagers killed a donkey, and served it to their hated foes. Next day they continued their flight, and were waylaid by the villagers, who assaulted them most murderously, jeering them as they did so with the shout, "Who ate the donkey?"
   Who stole the donkey? This was for many years a jeer against policemen. When the force was first established a donkey was stolen, but the police failed to discover the thief, and this failure gave rise to the laugh against them.
   Who stole the donkey? Answer: "The man with the white hat." It was said, in the middle of the nineteenth century, that white hats were made of the skins of donkeys, and that many donkeys were stolen and sold to hatters.

Donkey Engine (A). A small engine of from two to four horse-power.

Dony Florimel's dwarf. (Spenser: Faërie Queene, book iii. canto 5.)

Donzel (Italian). A squire or young man of good birth.

"He is esquire to a knight-errant, donzel to the damsels."- Butler: Characters.

Doolin of Mayence. The hero of a French romance of chivalry, and the father of Ogier the Dane.
   Doolin's Sword. Merveilleuse (wonderful). (See Sword.)