Left Ear (who is an explosives expert, but deaf in his right ear) : Okay, party people, here's the status. It's an anti-scaling fence. It's hardened, electro-plated steel. Yeah, I'm gonna have to paint that up with some nitromin.
Charlie: Security on the property?
Left Ear: Got an armed guard here. Little rent-a-cop, with a 9mm on his hip. But that booth, security booth look prime for a chemical grenade.
Lyle: Nitromin, chemical grenades, that stuff is pretty hard to come by.
Left Ear: Yeah, Lyle, it's a bear market...Sh*t. This dude got dogs. I don't do dogs. I had a real bad experience, man.
Charlie: What happened?
Left Ear: I had a bad experience. Da*n it. I'm deaf!
-- The Italian Job 2003
This scene occurs when Left Ear stays in his car surveilling Steve's house with professional binoculars.
I guess do here means deal with/handle. I checked the dictionaries but couldn't find any entries for this usage. Is this informal? Any other verbs which could be used to replace it?
Can you please give me a few more examples to help me gain a better understanding of it?
Answer
The locution "I don't do X" means "I consider X to be not a part of my job description". That is, I am not willing to do X.
"I don't do windows" said the cleaning lady. (see miltonaut's reference to Mrs Doubtfire)
So he's saying, in effect, "I have my particular set of skills and I'm willing to use them on jobs. But dealing with dogs isn't in the job description."
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