The AI-powered English dictionary
plural dons
A university professor, particularly one at Oxford or Cambridge. quotations examples
No one feeds at the high table except the dons and the gentlemen-commoners, who are undergraduates in velvet caps and silk gowns[.]
1859–1861, [Thomas Hughes], chapter I, in Tom Brown at Oxford: […], part 1st, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1861, page 12
The truth is, unless a man can get the prestige and income of a Don and write donnish books, it’s hardly worth while for him to make a Greek and Latin machine of himself and be able to spin you out pages of the Greek dramatists at any verse you’ll give him as a cue.
1876, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XVI, in Daniel Deronda, volume I, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, book II (Meeting Streams), page 321
An employee of a university residence who lives among the student residents. examples
A mafia boss. examples
(MLE) Any man, bloke, dude. quotations examples
I’m confused like who’s this don.22 bells and that who’s on
2017 October 31, Loski (lyrics and music), “Olympic Chinging”, from 1:55
third-person singular simple present dons, present participle donning, simple past and past participle donned
(transitive) To put on clothing; to dress (oneself) in an article of personal attire. quotations examples
Now when he had reached the King's capital wherein was Alaeddin, he alighted at one of the Kháns; and, when he had rested from the weariness of wayfare, he donned his dress and went down to wander about the streets, where he never passed a group without hearing them prate about the pavilion and its grandeur and vaunt the beauty of Alaeddin and his lovesomeness, his liberality and generosity, his fine manners and his good morals.
1886-88, Richard Francis Burton, The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night
Having donned our PPE, we walk through the site to the prefab that controls access to the tunnel.
2022 March 23, Paul Bigland, “HS2 is just 'passing through'”, in RAIL, number 953, page 41