English

Interjection

nothing doing

1. (idiomatic) Absolutely not; definitely no.
   • 1917, William MacLeod Raine, The Sheriff's Son, ch. 11:

     "I'll fix his clock all right."

     "Nothing doing. I won't have it."

   • 1920, Victor Appleton, Tom Swift And His Undersea Search, ch. 1:

     "[P]erhaps you might sell them a submarine or some of your diving apparatus."

     "Nothing doing, Ned. We've got other plans."

   • 1946, "MANAGEMENT: Bundy Saves & Shares," Time, 4 Nov.:

     [T]he employes of Detroit's Bundy Tubing Co. wanted a raise of 18 1/2 cents an hour. Said Bundy flatly: nothing doing.

   • 2008, Preeta Samarasan, Evening is the Whole Day, ISBN 9780618874477, p. 255:

     [S]he'd consoled herself with a fresh plan: she'd refuse to go to her father when he came back. Nothing doing, she'd say.

Usage notes

• Also commonly used as a sum-of-parts collocation meaning "nothing that is currently occurring" or "nothing going on", as in:

• 1846, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, ch. 4:

  "You see, Walter," he said, "in truth this business is merely a habit with me . . . but there's nothing doing, nothing doing. . . . I hardly know where I am myself; much less where my customers are."

• 1872, Mark Twain, Roughing It, ch. 24:

  There was nothing doing in the district—no mining—no milling—no productive effort—no income.

• 1922, Agatha Christie, The Secret Adversary, ch. 11:

  I began to think that there was nothing doing, that he'd just come on the trip for his health.

• 2010, Lee Child, Persuader, ISBN 9780440422983, p. 58:

  There was nothing doing in the kitchen.

Synonyms

• by no means, no dice, no way, no way Jose