ppl. a.
† 1. Wise, prudent, virtuous. Obs.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 29. Ðu ert wel don man, and þarto wurðlich.
c. 1205. [see YDO(N].
2. Skilfully or rightly performed or executed.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., II. viii. 190. It is a merytorie and a weel don deede.
1479. Cely Papers (Camden), 22. Hyt wher whell-doyn to enqwer … how he mythet be payd.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., I. v. 253. We will draw the Curtain, and shew you the picture … Ist not well done? Ibid. (1606), Ant. & Cl., V. ii. 328–9. What worke is heere Charmian? Is this well done? Char. It is well done, and fitting for a Princesse.
1890. Hardwicke’s Sci.-Gossip, XXVI. 82. This is a clear and well-done translation.
1900. Westm. Gaz., 5 May, 2/1. A well-done landscape of late autumn.
b. as an exclamation, expressing approval of what some one has done.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xvi. 347. Secundus Miles. Well done!
1538. Elyot, Dict., Euge, well done.
1611. Bible, Matt. xxv. 21. Well done, thou good and faithfull seruant.
1771. Smollett, Humphry Cl., 3 Oct. Well done, my dear boy!—O bravo!
1791. Burns, Tam o’ Shanter, 189. Tam … roars out, ‘Weel done, Cutty-sark!’
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 243. Ion. I obtained the first prize of all, Socrates. Soc. Well done.
c. quasi-sb. The utterance of this exclamation, as an expression of commendation.
1628. Earle, Microcosm., Self-conceited Man (Arb.), 32. Two excellent well-dones haue vndone him.
1790. Proc. African Assoc., 42. A single well-done from your Association has more worth in it to me, than all the trappings of the East.
1840. R. H. Dana, Two Yrs. bef. Mast, xi. (1854), 49. Fortunately I got through without any word from the officer, and heard the ‘well done’ of the mate, when the yard reached the deck.
† d. quasi-sb. What is well done. (In quot. personified.) Obs.
1602. Warner, Alb. Eng., IX. lii. 236. And curious thay That, dribling Almes by Arte, disband wel-Meant from wel-Dons pay.
3. Of meat: Thoroughly cooked.
1846. Soyer, Gastron. Regen., p. xxi. Veal and pork must be well done. Venison must be underdone.
