do-nothing
Americannoun
-
do-nothings
plural
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of do-nothing
First recorded in 1570–80
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In the middle, it can be hard to shake the Dwight Schrute-esque caricature of a manager who was shunted into some do-nothing role where he can’t cause too much damage.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
As much as Forrest is a know-nothing, except when it comes to knowing what love is, he’s also a do-nothing when it comes to acknowledging systemic wrongdoing.
From Salon ● Jul. 7, 2024
Whenever a company descends into dysfunction, often there’s a do-nothing board at the top.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 3, 2023
Consider, however, that Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and chief executive, has said he sets aside “puttering time” every morning before taking any calls or meetings — basically carving out a scheduled chunk of do-nothing time.
From New York Times ● May 29, 2021
The child did not at all like work, and, but for Joan’s insistence, would have been a regular little do-nothing.
From The Piskey-Purse Legends and Tales of North Cornwall by Enys Tregarthen
And we tell the liars, deniers, and do-nothings to shove off: There’s no future in naysaying.
From The Guardian ● May 22, 2019
Winkler’s Gene Cousineau, a self-serious buffoon long used to being surrounded by weightless do-nothings, mistakes Barry’s confession for an improvised monologue.
From Slate ● Mar. 29, 2019
We associate loafing with people wasting their lives; with harried parents shaking their sleeping teenage children out of bed; with do-nothings, doing nothing.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 23, 2018
According to America and the Holocaust: Deceit and Indifference, an accusatory, tweaked-up documentary that aired on PBS last week, the watchful do-nothings included high officials of the U.S. government.
From Time Magazine Archive
There were also in evidence, barbers, joiners, plumbers, grocers, fruit-sellers, bakers and venders of small wares, and there was the largest and most splendidly recruited army of do-nothings that the sun ever shone upon.
From The Girl and the Kingdom Learning to Teach by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
