adj. phr. [See WELL a. 3.]
1. Possessed of a competency, in easy circumstances; thriving, prosperous: a. as predicate (with or without hyphens).
1825. Brockett, N. C. Words, 330. Weel-te-dee, well to do—living comfortably.
1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, iii Her husband had returned well, and well to do.
a. 1845. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Jerry Jarvis’s Wig. A reputable grazier of Ivychurch, worthy and well-to-do.
1864. Tennyson, En. Arden, 310. I am rich and well-to-do.
1874. Symonds, Sk. Italy & Greece (1898), I. vi. 119. For Corsicans they [the Napoleon family] were well-to-do.
b. in fuller form well to do in the world.
Cf. well in the world, WELL a. 3.
1825. Mrs. Cameron, Crooked Paths (Houlston Tracts, I. xxv.), 6. He is what is called very well to do in the world.
1854. Surtees, Handley Cr., xiii. (1901), I. 93. They are very respectable—that’s to say … people well-to-do in the world.
1861. M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 48. The Corporation of the Steelyard were too well to do in the world to be other than … thoroughly Anglican.
1885. Law Times Rep., LII. 647/2. Both were well to do in the world.
c. attrib. (with hyphens).
1839. Thackeray, Stubbs’s Cal., Jan. My father was … a well-to-do gentleman of Bungay.
1850. E. FitzGerald, Lett. (1889), I. 202. It is only idle and well-to-do people who kill themselves.
1865. Trollope, Belton Est., xiii. 143. The well-to-do squirearchy of England.
1892. Gardiner, Student’s Hist. Eng., 489. The Colony of Virginia grew into a tobacco planting, well-to-do community.
d. absol. (as pl.).
1851. D. Jerrold, St. Giles, xiv. 136. He has strayed into the paradise of the well-to-do.
1891. Mrs. Oliphant, Jerusalem, IV. ii. 441. The well-to-do of every village gathered conspicuous on the road.
e. transf. Indicative of easy circumstances, prosperous-looking.
1863. Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia’s L., vi. Still, in spite of disorder like this, there was a well-to-do aspect about the place.
1883. D. C. Murray, Hearts, i. A comfortably furnished apartment, where shaded lamps and handsome curtains gave things a well-to-do and homelike look.
2. Of an animal or plant: Thriving.
1875. F. I. Scudamore, Day Dreams, 16. The cattle in the forestalls were sleek and well-to-do.
1881. Leicestersh. Gloss., Well-to do,… thriving, applied to trees, cattle, &c., as well as men.
1908. R. Bagot, A. Cuthbert, iii. 25. Fat and well-to-do rabbits.
3. Pleased or satisfied with oneself. rare–1.
1854. [see WELL a. 2 c].
Hence Well-to-do-ism, Well-to-do-ness, prosperity.
1848. Clough, Poems (1862), Mem. p. xv. Well-to-do-ism shakes her Egyptian scourge, to the tune of ‘ye are idle, ye are idle.’
1849. Lytton, Caxtons, II. iii. The house had an air of solidity, and well-to-do-ness about it.
1882. Mrs. Oliphant, Lit. Hist. Eng., III. 134. Even the poverty of wealth is better than the well-to-do-ness of the humble.
1887. Miss E. E. Money, Dutch Maiden, II. 196. ‘It [an inheritance] is nothing wonderful,’ he added, ‘but well-to-doism for a fellow like me.’
1925. J. Bone, London Perambulator, 124. All the nice well-flavoured old things [at a pastrycook’s in High Street] that suggested Kensington well-to-do-ness…—all, all had gone.
