• how-do-you-do,how-d'ye-do,how-de-do(noun)

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howdoyou do?

1. (formal,dated)A greeting used upon being introduced to someone. Alternatives arehow are you,pleased to meet you, andnice to meet you. (Sometimes used as a rhetorical question among familiar parties, depending on the region).
   • 1913,Eleanor H. Porter, chapter8, inPollyanna‎^[1], L.C. Page,→OCLC:

     "How do you do?" began Pollyanna politely. "I'm from Miss Polly Harrington, and I'd like to see Mrs. Snow, please."

This phrase can be inflected: "I asked him how he was doing" or (obsolete) "I asked him how he did".

• how are you doing (less formal)
• howdy (informal)

howdoyoudo (pluralhow do you dos)

1. (UK,euphemistic) Adifficultsituation
   • 1993, Nick Park,Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers:

     Well, this is a finehow do you do isn't it, Gromit?

   • 2010, Michael Sledge,The More I Owe You: A Novel, Counterpoint Press,→ISBN, page78:

     On the winding road to Petropolis, they did not speak, not about modernism or the construction of houses or antique bird jails or finehow-do-you-dos.

   • 2013, Chris Raschka,Seriously, Norman!, Scholastic Inc.,→ISBN, page115:

     "Vienna!" Mr. B. went on. "This is a bit of ahow-do-you-do, is it not?"