Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

nothing doing en · INTJ

Pronunciation

Meanings

  1. (India, dated, idiomatic) Absolutely not; definitely no.
    • [T]he employes of Detroit's Bundy Tubing Co. wanted a raise of 18 1/2 cents an hour. Said Bundy flatly: nothing doing. 1946 November 4, “MANAGEMENT: Bundy Saves & Shares”, in Time:
    • "[P]erhaps you might sell them a submarine or some of your diving apparatus." "Nothing doing, Ned. We've got other plans." 1920, Victor Appleton, chapter 1, in Tom Swift And His Undersea Search:
    • [S]he'd consoled herself with a fresh plan: she'd refuse to go to her father when he came back. Nothing doing, she'd say. 2008, Preeta Samarasan, Evening is the Whole Day, →ISBN, page 255:
    • "I'll fix his clock all right." "Nothing doing. I won't have it." 1917, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 11, in The Sheriff's Son:
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see nothing, doing: nothing that is currently occurring; nothing going on.
    • I began to think that there was nothing doing, that he'd just come on the trip for his health. 1922, Agatha Christie, chapter 11, in The Secret Adversary:
    • There was nothing doing in the kitchen. 2010, Lee Child, Persuader, →ISBN, page 58:
    • There was nothing doing in the district—no mining—no milling—no productive effort—no income—[…] 1870–1871 (date written), Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXIX, in Roughing It, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company [et al.], published 1872, →OCLC, page 214:
    • "You see, Walter," he said, "in truth this business is merely a habit with me . . . but there's nothing doing, nothing doing. . . . I hardly know where I am myself; much less where my customers are." 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, chapter 4, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC:

Relateds

no can do

Synonyms

no way · no dice · no way Jose · by no means