or cut up didoes, shindies, shines, etc., verbal phr. (colloquial).—To play pranks or tricks; the same as CUT CAPERS.
18[?]. Pickings from the Picayune, p. 147. This ’ere Frenchman has been CUTTING UP DIDOES in my house now for several days; he aint sober onst a week, and breaks all my cheers and tables Mr. Recorder.
1851. New York Tribune, 10 April. Had the Free States been manly enough, true enough, to enact the Wilmot Proviso as to all present or future territories of the Union, we should have had just the same DIDOES CUT UP by the chivalry that we have witnessed, and with no more damage to the Union.
