nothing doing
intj- "I'll fix his clock all right." "Nothing doing. I won't have it."1917, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 11, in The Sheriff's Son:
- "[P]erhaps you might sell them a submarine or some of your diving apparatus." "Nothing doing, Ned. We've got other plans."1920, Victor Appleton, chapter 1, in Tom Swift And His Undersea Search:
2 more examples
- [T]he employes of Detroit's Bundy Tubing Co. wanted a raise of 18 1/2 cents an hour. Said Bundy flatly: nothing doing.1946 November 4, “MANAGEMENT: Bundy Saves & Shares”, in Time:
- [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.2008, Preeta Samarasan, Evening is the Whole Day, →ISBN, page 255:
2
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see nothing, doing: nothing that is currently occurring; nothing going on.
- "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."1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, chapter 4, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC:
- There was nothing doing in the district—no mining—no milling—no productive effort—no income—[…]1870–1871 (date written), Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXIX, in Roughing It, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company [et al.], published 1872, →OCLC, page 214:
2 more examples
- I began to think that there was nothing doing, that he'd just come on the trip for his health.1922, Agatha Christie, chapter 11, in The Secret Adversary:
- There was nothing doing in the kitchen.2010, Lee Child, Persuader, →ISBN, page 58:
- Synonyms
- by no means, no dice, no way, no way Jose
- Related terms
- no can do