Do By Halves Meaning

(transitive, idiomatic) To perform (a task, etc) partially or incompletely; to do (something) inadequately, halfheartedly, or shoddily.

Example: 1880, Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad, ch. 30:
  [A] pedestrian tour of Europe could not be complete without them. Of course that decided me at once to see them, for I never allow myself to do things by halves, or in a slurring, slipshod way.
1925 Sept. 21, Mordaunt Hall, "The Screen" (film review of The Freshman), New York Times (retrieved 5 March 2014):
  Rin-Tin-Tin does nothing by halves, for he tracks the murderer himself and kills him.
2005 April 8, Claus Moser, "Obituary: Jane Attenborough," The Guardian (UK) (retrieved 5 March 2014):
  If there was one word to describe her, it was "intense" - so well chosen in her brother Michael's moving eulogy. Nothing, absolutely nothing was done by halves. . . . Her commitment was total.