"do exactly what it says on the tin" meaning in English

See do exactly what it says on the tin in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: does exactly what it says on the tin [present, singular, third-person], doing exactly what it said on the tin [participle, present], did exactly what it said on the tin [past], done exactly what it said on the tin [participle, past]
Etymology: Based on the slogan from a series of UK television commercials for Ronseal (sealant products), beginning in the 1990s. Head templates: {{en-verb|do<does,,did,done> exactly what it says<says,said,said> on the tin}} do exactly what it says on the tin (third-person singular simple present does exactly what it says on the tin, present participle doing exactly what it said on the tin, simple past did exactly what it said on the tin, past participle done exactly what it said on the tin)
  1. (idiomatic, British, Ireland) To do what is described or what one would expect, with no further explanation needed. Wikipedia link: do exactly what it says on the tin Tags: British, Ireland, idiomatic Related terms: dead dove

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_text": "Based on the slogan from a series of UK television commercials for Ronseal (sealant products), beginning in the 1990s.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "does exactly what it says on the tin",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "doing exactly what it said on the tin",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "did exactly what it said on the tin",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "done exactly what it said on the tin",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "do<does,,did,done> exactly what it says<says,said,said> on the tin"
      },
      "expansion": "do exactly what it says on the tin (third-person singular simple present does exactly what it says on the tin, present participle doing exactly what it said on the tin, simple past did exactly what it said on the tin, past participle done exactly what it said on the tin)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English sentences",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with placeholder \"it\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Irish English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2004, Andrea Schulte-Peevers, Germany, Lonely Planet,, →ISBN, page 689:",
          "text": "[The Erotic Art Museum] does exactly what it says on the tin: presents erotic art […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, Stephen J. Sweeney, Firmware, volume 1:",
          "text": "“That update is doing exactly what it says on the tin,” Jack started, demonstrating the date of birth restriction. It only returned the day and month now, holding back the year, causing some of Jack's regression tests to fail.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 January 26, Paul Clifton, “Network News: ... and Arterio woes could mean more cascades”, in RAIL, number 949, page 10:",
          "text": "\"Until we get a train that performs to specification, it's difficult to put a timeline on it. The train does not do what it says on the tin.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 August 12, Caroline Lucas, “As drought blights the UK, our politicians have their heads buried in the sand”, in The Guardian:",
          "text": "The solutions to this crisis are clear. We must keep fossil fuels in the ground and deliver a clean, green and affordable energy system. We need publicly owned utilities to do what they say on the tin, rather than simply siphon off obscene profits to shareholders.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To do what is described or what one would expect, with no further explanation needed."
      ],
      "id": "en-do_exactly_what_it_says_on_the_tin-en-verb-Zxcmx103",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, British, Ireland) To do what is described or what one would expect, with no further explanation needed."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "dead dove"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British",
        "Ireland",
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "do exactly what it says on the tin"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "do exactly what it says on the tin"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Based on the slogan from a series of UK television commercials for Ronseal (sealant products), beginning in the 1990s.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "does exactly what it says on the tin",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "doing exactly what it said on the tin",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "did exactly what it said on the tin",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "done exactly what it said on the tin",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "do<does,,did,done> exactly what it says<says,said,said> on the tin"
      },
      "expansion": "do exactly what it says on the tin (third-person singular simple present does exactly what it says on the tin, present participle doing exactly what it said on the tin, simple past did exactly what it said on the tin, past participle done exactly what it said on the tin)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "dead dove"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English sentences",
        "English terms with placeholder \"it\"",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Irish English",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2004, Andrea Schulte-Peevers, Germany, Lonely Planet,, →ISBN, page 689:",
          "text": "[The Erotic Art Museum] does exactly what it says on the tin: presents erotic art […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, Stephen J. Sweeney, Firmware, volume 1:",
          "text": "“That update is doing exactly what it says on the tin,” Jack started, demonstrating the date of birth restriction. It only returned the day and month now, holding back the year, causing some of Jack's regression tests to fail.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 January 26, Paul Clifton, “Network News: ... and Arterio woes could mean more cascades”, in RAIL, number 949, page 10:",
          "text": "\"Until we get a train that performs to specification, it's difficult to put a timeline on it. The train does not do what it says on the tin.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 August 12, Caroline Lucas, “As drought blights the UK, our politicians have their heads buried in the sand”, in The Guardian:",
          "text": "The solutions to this crisis are clear. We must keep fossil fuels in the ground and deliver a clean, green and affordable energy system. We need publicly owned utilities to do what they say on the tin, rather than simply siphon off obscene profits to shareholders.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To do what is described or what one would expect, with no further explanation needed."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, British, Ireland) To do what is described or what one would expect, with no further explanation needed."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British",
        "Ireland",
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "do exactly what it says on the tin"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "do exactly what it says on the tin"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.