| / English Dictionary |
NOTHING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A quantity of no importance
Example:
I didn't hear zilch about it
Synonyms:
aught; cipher; cypher; goose egg; nada; naught; nil; nix; nothing; null; zero; zilch; zip; zippo
Classified under:
Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure
Hypernyms ("nothing" is a kind of...):
relative quantity (a quantity relative to some purpose)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "nothing"):
nihil ((Latin) nil; nothing (as used by a sheriff after an unsuccessful effort to serve a writ))
bugger all; Fanny Adams; fuck all; sweet Fanny Adams (little or nothing at all)
II. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
In no respect; to no degree
Example:
he looks nothing like his father
Classified under:
Context examples:
You wanted to create beauty, but how could you when you knew nothing about the nature of beauty?
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Undoubtedly philosophers are in the right, when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
She gave each a little piece of bread, and said: “There is something for your dinner, but do not eat it up before then, for you will get nothing else.”
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Nothing seems safe from plastic contamination.
(Microplastics million times more abundant in the ocean than previously thought, National Science Foundation)
For several virus strains, the extract reduced the virus to almost nothing.
(Mushroom Extract Could Help Save Bees from Virus, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
The objects have nothing to do with planets.
(Hubble Views a Colorful Demise of a Sun-like Star, NASA)
“I have seen nothing of my horse,” said he.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Nothing like them exists in our solar system.
('Cotton Candy' Planet Mysteries Unravel in New Hubble Observations, NASA)
Most life on Earth, specifically all aerobic, oxygen-breathing life, wants nothing to do with phosphine, neither producing it nor relying on it for survival.
(Poisonous Earthly Molecule May Be Sign of Extraterrestrial Life, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
"There is nothing to be done," said the little woman calmly.
(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)
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