Diy meaning: definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary

Wait, What does DIY mean? – Love & Renovations

October 5, 2021October 30, 2021

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Chances are, if you’ve found your way to my website (or any other DIY blogger’s), you know the meaning of the acronym DIY. But what if you’re new here? What if you’ve just stumbled into the DIY world and we’re all over here spouting off about projects and tools and materials and you’re just sitting there saying, “hold on a second, what does DIY mean?!”

I’m here for you, friend.

DIY is an abbreviation that means Do It Yourself.

It seems incredibly simple. And honestly, it is! But, DIY means so much more than just a quick house project or furniture project. DIY can refer to so many different things! In fact, when you hear the word you may think of something completely different than someone else.

For example, when I hear the abbreviation DIY, I immediately think of home improvement projects, building furniture, and crafts. When it comes to the home, DIY can mean everything from making throw pillows to building your own house!

Of course, when other people think of the meaning of DIY, maybe they don’t think of anything home related at all. Maybe they think of DIY auto repair, decorating a cake, or something completely different!

In fact, if you head over to Instagram, YouTube, or Pinterest and search “DIY”, you’ll be amazed and the broad range of things you see!

Basically, DIY just means that you’re taking care of something yourself (aka: doing it yourself) rather than hiring a skilled professional to do it for you. This can apply to everything under the sun!

If you’re hanging out on my corner of the internet, you’ll find that I share mostly DIY house and home related things.

Here are some DIY projects from my archives that would be great for any beginner to try!

Beginner-level DIY {Do it Yourself} Projects

DIY Faux Wood Accent Wall
Simple DIY Floating Shelves
How to Install Board & Batten
DIY Blanket Ladder
Easy DIY Faux Aged Lamp

If you want some more resources to get started on your DIY journey, you can also click here to see all of my beginner guides – they cover everything from how to use power tools to how to paint a room!

Are there any other acronyms in the world of DIY that you’d like to know more about?

diy noun – Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes

Definition of DIY noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

noun

/ˌdiː aɪ ˈwaɪ/

[uncountable]

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the activity of making, repairing or decorating things in the home yourself, instead of paying somebody to do it (the abbreviation for ‘do-it-yourself’)
- a DIY store
- My brother is a real DIY enthusiast.
Collocations Decorating and home improvementDecorating and home improvementHouses
- refurbish/renovate/ (British English) do up a building/a house
- convert a building/house/room into homes/offices/(especially North American English) apartments/(British English) flats
- extend/enlarge a house/building/room/kitchen
- build (British English) an extension (to the back/rear of a house)/(North American English) an addition (on/to something)/(British English) a conservatory
- knock down/demolish a house/home/building/wall
- knock out/through the wall separating two rooms
Decoration
- furnish/paint/ (especially British English) decorate a home/a house/an apartment/a flat/a room
- be decorated in bright colours/in a traditional style/with flowers/with paintings
- paint/plaster the walls/ceiling
- hang/put up/strip off/remove the wallpaper
- install/replace/remove the bathroom fixtures/(British English) fittings
- build/put up shelves
- lay wooden flooring/timber decking/floor tiles/a carpet/a patio
- put up/hang/take down a picture/painting/poster/curtain
DIY/home improvement
- do (British English) DIY/carpentry/the plumbing/the wiring
- make home improvements
- add/install central heating/underfloor heating/insulation
- fit/install double-glazing/a smoke alarm
- insulate your house/your home/the walls/the pipes/the tanks/(especially British English) the loft
- fix/repair a roof/a leak/a pipe/the plumbing/a leaking (especially British English) tap/(North American English usually) faucet
- block/clog (up)/unblock/unclog a pipe/sink
- make/drill/fill a hole
- hammer (in)/pull out/remove a nail
- tighten/untighten/loosen/remove a screw
- saw/cut/treat/stain/varnish/paint wood
Topics Houses and homesb2

Oxford Collocations DictionaryDIY is used before these nouns:
- retailer
- store
See full entry

Word Origin1950s: abbreviation of do it yourself.

See DIY in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

Check pronunciation:
DIY

nurture

verb

From the Topic

Life stages

Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries Word of the Day

“If you want to do something, do it yourself…” This wonderful…

“If you want to do something, do it yourself…”

This wonderful phrase used to be often inserted into old films and serials. As a rule, these were some idiotic fighters, where the main villain for a long time and dreary entrusted the murder of the main positive character to his henchmen, and for one reason or another they could not cope with the task. And then, at the very end of the film, when the tension increased to the limit, the villain uttered this phrase and all the audience understood that the final action would now begin, where the two main antipodes of the film would collide.

Now, for some reason, such a phrase has disappeared from the cinema, as a class, which I endlessly regret, because, despite all its primitiveness, this phrase had almost the deepest meaning of all popular expressions that were once uttered. or heroes of various films. Moreover, this phrase, despite the fact that few people gave it the proper meaning, fits very well with the realities of everyday life, in which, indeed, if you want something to be done, do it yourself, and do not wait, until someone does it for you. Unfortunately, many people forget about this and instead of acting, they sit back, waiting for actions from others.

It is rare that you only need something for yourself. There are sure to be a few other people who are in dire need of it. And the stupidest thing in such a situation is to sit and wait for those others to achieve this thing without your help, because they need it too. It’s stupid because those others are 90 percent likely to do the same, expecting their desires to be fulfilled by other people who have similar needs. By the way, that is why humanity has long been mired in darkness and with great difficulty reaches for the light, and most people do not live at all the way they would like to live. The overwhelming majority of things that we all want together are never destined to come true, because, due to the simplicity of our souls, everyone and everything, instead of fighting for what is desired, sit back and wait for the battle of others, remaining only spectators themselves.

We live in a consumer society. From time immemorial, people have been divided into those who create, organize and do, and those who shamelessly use what has been created, organized and done, without feeling any gratitude. The trouble is that over the years the first ones become less and less, and therefore life becomes more and more boring, monotonous and a lot of things that it’s time to finish for a long time do not move from the dead center. This is very well seen in people of all ages and generations, and as soon as you think about such things, it immediately becomes scary for our future, because nothing good awaits ahead with such trends. And here it is already just right to force people to watch old action films, despite all their idiocy and all their pompous stupidity. To watch, if only because there is very often and confidently repeated the old truth, which for some reason no one has ever attached special importance to … If you want to do something, do it yourself …

18 times when the saying “If you want to do something well, do it yourself” completely justified itself / Bright Side

Have you ever tried to calculate how much money you spend on beauty services? Cosmetics, haircuts, manicures, pedicures – the list seems to be endless. You should not discount clothes that periodically require updating. Apparently, the heroines of our article also thought about this. They decided that something could be done on their own.

We at Bright Side were sincerely happy for the craftswomen who seem to do everything perfectly well. At the end of the article, a bonus awaits you – an example of what ingenuity sometimes comes to.

1. “I didn’t want to pay $6,500 for a mullet haircut, so I made it myself”

2 simple “I made myself a dress for Valentine’s Day for $2 »

3. “Even though my wedding is still 9 months away, I’m already hard at work doing my holiday makeup.”

4. “I had shoulder-length wavy hair. I just took a razor and cut them like this. I feel so cheeky.”

5. “My family was upset that I didn’t buy a ‘real’ wedding dress but made it myself.”

0025 6. “The photo on the left is me after the hairdresser, where I had an uneven cut. Luckily, I was able to fix it myself.”

after a difficult breakup, I went to the hairdresser, where they gave me a cool haircut.

Tonight I decided to recreate that look and cut my own hair.”

9. “I sewed a coat to survive the Canadian winter”

10. “I learned to contrast my nose”

11. “I had to cut each hair separately”

12. “I made my first shirt today”

13. “At 2 o’clock in the morning I suddenly wanted to cut my hair. I am extremely pleased with the result of my impulsive decision.”

14. “My mother bought this dress for $1 because of the soft, beautiful fabric. I had to completely cut it out and re-sew it.”

15. “The aesthetic of designer Yoji Yamamoto is very close to me. Today I sewed for myself an asymmetrical layered top in his style. It took me about 10 hours”