A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

Note: 
The expression does not correlate in meaning with the
phrase do someone a good turn— perform an act of kindness or
help a person unselfishly: Why should you do me a good turn?
I never did you one.
See also: do someone well / do well by someone.
do history • make history
do history —study history (as a major): She does history at
Warwick University, and likes her ivory towers enough to con-
sider postgraduate study.
make history —do smth. which will be recorded in history:
Wright made history with the first manned flight in a heav-
ier-than-air craft.
do it • make it
do it—
1
. have a required effect: Again I did not go and
pleaded the same reason. That apparently did it — she stopped
asking me to lunch parties. 2. (euph.) have sex: At sixteen
you’re horny enough to get an erection watching two parakeets
do it, let alone humans. 3. (coll.) make a mess of things; make
a foolish blunder: Oh God! I’ve done it again. When will I
learn to hold my tongue. 4. (euph.) defecate or urinate: Look
what happened. The dog did it again on the Persian carpet!
Note:
The expression does not correlate in meaning with the
phrase overdo it—
1
. overexert oneself: He overdid it last winter
and now evidently stands in need of rest. 2. carry smth. to ex-
cess; do too much: She seemed to be an attractive woman who
overdid it with makeup and clothes.
make it—
1
. successfully accomplish smth.: The charts
showed we had made it, and big. 2. recover from an illness,
etc.; survive: He’s so sick, I don’t think he’ll make it. 3. get to
a particular place, especially in time: Although they got out
late, they made it. 4. = do it 2: Those bedroom eyes were
telling him their owner wanted to make it.