Learn English – origin of “5 seconds flat”

In (British) English, a painlessly idiomatic usage would be

Mechanic: Do you want to repair your car?

You: Yes, but please don’t go overboard.

As thefreedictionary points out, ‘go overboard’ literally means falling out of a boat, but idiomatically one can also go overboard on a task: ‘to do too much; to be extravagant’.

That can mean a range of things, from taking a task in general more seriously than it could possibly merit, to polishing thousands of tiny details that no-one could possibly ever see.

In the case of your example, the not going overboard scenario would involve the mechanic simply fixing the essential problem efficiently, and stopping there.

John’s colleagues would understand each other perfectly if one of them were simply to say, ‘John is going overboard again.’ They might or might not try to stop him, but they would understand that John is expending unnecessary time and effort, as usual.

Not sure this helps, anyway I’ll post what I’ve been able to find.

As for the “downlow” origin of the second meaning you are referring to, The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English appears to confirm your finding:

Do lo :

adv. secret. An abbreviation of downlow (USA 1999.)

The term appears to be very productive especially in the hip hop scene, and its formation appears to have come through in different ways; acronym, initial letters, assonance etc.

Dolo:

1.Alone. Solo, for self. Going dolo.

3.Doing Shit On your own. not rolling deep. Solo. "usually I'm dolo, but i got a crazy team" - Gangstarr "right Where U stand"

4.D.one O.n L.onely by O.neself. Meaning doing something on your own without the help or advice of others. Informal; originated in the New York area and commonly used by hip hop artists from that particular region.

• "dolo of delf for self, see there's no one else" - Q-Tip ("Award Tour" by A Tribe Called Quest)

5.Performing an action by yourself. I went to the club by my dolo. I went to the mall by my dolo to cop me some sneaks.

7.Used in many different ways, an additional meaning is of one with little or no money. A slang conglomeration of, "dough," and, "low," it's a quick-reference term when one has little cash available at the current juncture in time.

• "Hey, yo. You wanna hit up liquor store and drink some tonight?" "I can't, man, I'm dolo right now. Maybe tomorrow."

Random Word