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definitions

naught

or nought

[ nawt ]
/ nɔt /
||
SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR naught ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

nothing.
a cipher (0); zero.

adjective

lost; ruined.
Archaic. worthless; useless.
Obsolete. morally bad; wicked.

adverb

Obsolete. not.

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RELATED WORDS

nothing, cipher, zilch, nonexistence, insignificant, useless, worthless

Nearby words

  1. nauch,
  2. naucratis,
  3. naufragous,
  4. naugahyde,
  5. naugatuck,
  6. naughty,
  7. naughty nineties,
  8. naughty step,
  9. naumachia,
  10. naumachy

Idioms

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

before 900; Middle English; Old English nauht, nāwiht (nā no1 + wiht thing). See nought, wight1, whit
Can be confusednaught nought
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for naught

British Dictionary definitions for naught

naught

/ (nɔːt) /

noun

archaic, or literary nothing or nothingness; ruin or failure
a variant spelling (esp US) of nought
set at naught to have disregard or scorn for; disdain

adverb

archaic, or literary not at allit matters naught

adjective

obsolete worthless, ruined, or wicked

Word Origin for naught

Old English nāwiht, from nā 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
Word Origin and History for naught

naught

n.

Old English nawiht "nothing," lit "no whit," from na "no" (from PIE root *ne- "no, not;" see un- (1)) + wiht "thing, creature, being" (see wight). Cognate with Old Saxon neowiht "nothing," Old High German niwiht, Gothic ni waihts. It also developed an adjectival sense in Old English, "good for nothing," which by mid-16c. had focused to "morally bad, wicked." In arithmetic, "the figure zero" from 1640s.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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.