come to nothing

1. Also, come to naught. Fail, as in All his efforts have come to nothing, or The last round of peace talks came to naught. The first term dates from the mid-1500s, the variant from the early 1600s.

Example Sentences

But international efforts to bring about a two-state solution have come to nothing and Israel's colonisation of large parts of the West Bank, illegal under international law, has turned the concept into a largely empty slogan.

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In December, the two main Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, agreed to form a joint committee to oversee its administration - an agreement which has so far come to nothing.

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Dogged US efforts to prevent the crisis from escalating, involving presidential visits, countless diplomatic missions and the deployment of vast military resources, have all come to nothing.

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Months of shuttle diplomacy by the US envoy Amos Hochstein - building on already established UN Security Resolutions on Israel and Hezbollah - have come to nothing.

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This is true even if the federal probes come to nothing.

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Related Words

• baffle 
• deceive 
• disconcert 
• disenchant 
• dishearten 
• disillusion 
• dissatisfy 
• dumbfound 
• fail 
• hamper 
• mislead