naught

or nought

[ nawt ]
See synonyms for: naughtnaughts on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. a cipher (0); zero.

adjective
  1. lost; ruined.

  2. Archaic. worthless; useless.

  1. Obsolete. morally bad; wicked.

adverb
  1. Obsolete. not.

Idioms about naught

  1. come to naught, to come to nothing; be without result or fruition; fail.

  2. set at naught, to regard or treat as of no importance; disdain: He entered a milieu that set his ideals at naught.

Origin of naught

1
before 900; Middle English; Old English nauht, nāwiht (no1 + wiht thing). See nought, wight1, whit

Words that may be confused with naught

Words Nearby naught

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use naught in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for naught

naught

/ (nɔːt) /


noun
  1. archaic, or literary nothing or nothingness; ruin or failure

  2. a variant spelling (esp US) of nought

  1. set at naught to have disregard or scorn for; disdain

adverb
  1. archaic, or literary not at all: it matters naught

adjective
  1. obsolete worthless, ruined, or wicked

Origin of naught

1
Old English nāwiht, from no 1 + wiht thing, person; see wight 1, whit

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with naught

naught

see come to nothing (naught).

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.