on no account

Idioms  

1. Also, not on any account. Under no circumstances, certainly not, as in On no account should you put a metal utensil in the microwave oven, or Dad said we can't go, not on any account. [Mid-1800s]

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Example Sentences

“The dahlia’s first duty in life is to flaunt and to swagger,” wrote British horticulturist Gertrude Jekyll, “and to carry gorgeous blooms well above its leaves, and on no account to hang its head.”

From Washington Post • Nov. 15, 2022

Publicists at Doubleday and at Bloomsbury, her U.K. publisher, said that on no account was I to attempt to discover Lyndsey’s real name, or the names of other people described in the book.

From The New Yorker • Sep. 19, 2016

But on no account turn the steering wheel.

From BBC • Feb. 7, 2014

Besides, she is already wrapping up, telling me that on no account am I to refer to her as a Taiwanese businesswoman.

From Slate • Feb. 19, 2012

The doctor gave us some medicine for Karli and told us that on no account was he to go out in the cold, or travel, until he was completely well again.

From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo