Thread: "Overdo"
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Old 20-Nov-2006, 18:47
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Default Re: "Overdo"

Quote:
Originally Posted by BobK View Post
Not in BE; we would normally say 'don't overdo it' in this context; 'don't overdo things' would be OK, though I suspect it'd be slightly less common. I don't think a native BE speaker would say 'don't overdo'.

Generally, I get the impression that AmE is readier to assume an obvious object than we are; they will say 'She's trying to reduce' (at least, I think that's AmE - unless Ray Charles, in Two-Ton Tessie from Tennessee, just wanted a rhyme for excuse), where a BE speaker would say 'she's trying to lose weight' or 'she's slimming'.

b
"Reduce" was used in reference to losing weight back in the 1940s and 50s - they used to advertise and sell "reducing pills" and "reducing machines" quite regularly - but that phraseology has gone the way of "groovy." We now just say "lose weight" ("slimming" is strictly BE).
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