nothing

noth|ing¹ W1S1 [ˈnʌθıŋ] pron

[: Old English; Origin: nan thing, nathing 'no thing']

1.) not anything or no thing

▪ Nothing ever happens in this town.

▪ There's nothing in this box.

▪ There was nothing else the doctors could do.

▪ He had nothing more to say.

▪ We know nothing about her family.

▪ I couldn't just stand by and do nothing .

▪ I promised to say nothing about it to anyone.

▪ We've heard nothing from her for weeks.

▪ There's absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.

▪ 'Do you know much about business?' ' Nothing at all .'

▪ She had eaten virtually nothing at supper.

▪ There's nothing wrong with the data.

▪ There's nothing new about this.

▪ A brief search was made but they found nothing untoward .

2.) nothing but

only

▪ She'd had nothing but bad luck.

3.) have nothing against sb/sth

if you have nothing against someone or something, they do not annoy or offend you

▪ I have nothing against him personally.

4.) something which is considered unimportant, not interesting, or not worth worrying about

▪ 'What have you been doing?' 'Nothing. Just sitting here.'

▪ There's nothing on television tonight.

▪ 'What did you do last weekend?' 'Oh, nothing much .'

▪ Politics meant nothing (=was not important) to me for years.

▪ The meal was nothing special (=it was not unusual or interesting) - just fish with a cheese sauce.

5.) especially AmE zero

British Equivalent: nil

▪ We beat them ten to nothing.

6.) have/be nothing to do with sb/sth

if you have nothing to do with someone or something, or if someone or something has nothing to do with you, you are not involved or connected with it

▪ He said that he had nothing to do with the decision.

▪ As I said, it's nothing to do with me.

▪ That's got nothing to do with you.

▪ I want nothing to do with (=do not want to be involved) the whole thing.

▪ My staff had nothing whatsoever to do with this.

7.) for nothing

a) without paying for something or being paid for something

▪ Why pay a plumber when my brother will do it for nothing?

b) if you do something for nothing, you make an effort but do not get the result you expected and wanted

▪ We went all that way for nothing.

8.) no money or payment at all

▪ This service will cost you nothing.

▪ When a car has done that many miles, it's worth nothing.

9.) there's nothing like sth

used to say that something is very good

▪ There's nothing like a long hot bath after a day's climbing.

10.) there's nothing in/to sth

used to say that what people are saying about someone or something is not true

▪ It seems there's nothing in the rumours that she's pregnant.

11.) if nothing else

used to emphasize one good quality or feature that someone or something has, while suggesting that it might be the only good one

▪ If nothing else, the report points out the need for better math education.

12.) come to nothing

if a plan or action comes to nothing, it does not continue or does not achieve anything

13.) be nothing if not sth

used to emphasize a particular quality that someone or something has

▪ You've got to admit - he's nothing if not persistent.

14.) nothing doing

spoken used to refuse to do something

15.) (there's) nothing to it

spoken used to say that something is easy to do

▪ Anyone can use a computer. There's nothing to it!

16.) it was nothing/think nothing of it

spoken used when someone has thanked you a lot for something you have done for them

▪ 'Thank you so much.' 'Oh, it was nothing.'

17.) nothing of the sort/kind

spoken used to say strongly or angrily that something is not true or will not happen

▪ 'I'll pay.' 'You'll do nothing of the sort!'

18.) have nothing on sb informal

if someone has nothing on you, they are not better than you at something

▪ She's got nothing on you when it comes to writing.

19.) there's nothing for it but to do sth

BrE used when there is only one thing you can do in a particular situation

▪ There was nothing for it but to go back the way we came.

→sweet nothings at ↑sweet¹ (13), to say nothing of at ↑say¹ (46), nothing on earth at ↑earth¹ (9)

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COLLOCATES for sense 1

nothing else/nothing more

know nothing (about somebody/something)

do/say/hear nothing

absolutely nothing

nothing at all/nothing whatsoever

virtually/practically nothing

nothing wrong

nothing new

nothing untoward (=nothing unusual or bad)

HINT

Do not use another negative word (e.g. 'not') with nothing. Use anything with not: Nothing happened. |Didn't anything happen?

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nothing ²

nothing² adv

1.) be/seem/look nothing like sb/sth

to have no qualities or features that are similar to someone or something else

▪ She's nothing like her brother.

▪ She looked nothing like her photograph.

2.) be nothing less than sth also be nothing short of sth

used to emphasize that something or someone has a particular quality or seems to be something

▪ His behaviour was nothing short of rudeness.