From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdo a number on somebody/somethingdo a number on somebody/somethinginformal to hurt or damage someone or something badly Tod really did a number on the old house. I don’t envy the new tenants. → number
Examples from the Corpus
do a number on somebody/something• Danny did a real number on the car.• It was a small piece of shrapnel, but it did a number on the left cheek of my hind end. 