naught
or nought
[nawt]
- nothing.
- a cipher (0); zero.
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- lost; ruined.
- Archaic. worthless; useless.
- Obsolete. morally bad; wicked.
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- Obsolete. not.
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- 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.
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Origin of naught
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for naught
Contemporary Examples
According to Farmaner, the reforms of 2011 have largely come to naught.
Myanmar’s Free Burma Rangers Are Like Doctors Without Borders…With GunsJames Griffiths
April 19, 2014
But moments later there was a twist, and with it the fear that the prayers had been for naught.
Venus' Epic Fight, for Naught Long gone are the days when Venus Williams dominated tennis, but she sure still gives it her all.
U.S. Open’s Delicious Week One: Serena and Sloane, Rafa and Roger, and MoreNicholas McCarvel
September 1, 2013
Hoping that his hi-tech marketing wiles will not go for naught, Bennett will now try to torpedo the prize ceremony.
In the end, all the praise and support from the international community was for naught.
Historical Examples
So it seemed that they had naught to fear, save the daily chance of life and death.
Fair MargaretH. Rider Haggard
Of that performance let naught be spoken, save in reverence.
Meadow GrassAlice Brown
I mind the time when her yellow arms were naught but bone and parchment.
The Uncommercial TravellerCharles Dickens
They, having eaten, had naught to do, and were only waiting a decent hour for departure.
The Gentleman From IndianaBooth Tarkington
This time he thought he was dead himself; he was naught but an empty sepulchre.
The Three Cities Trilogy, CompleteEmile Zola
naught
- 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
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- archaic, or literary not at allit matters naught
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- obsolete worthless, ruined, or wicked
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Word Origin
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
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.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with naught
naught
see come to nothing (naught).
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.