naught

naught
    n 1: a quantity of no importance; "it looked like nothing I had
         ever seen before"; "reduced to nil all the work we had
         done"; "we racked up a pathetic goose egg"; "it was all for
         naught"; "I didn't hear zilch about it" [syn: {nothing},
         {nil}, {nix}, {nada}, {null}, {aught}, {cipher}, {cypher},
         {goose egg}, {naught}, {zero}, {zilch}, {zip}, {zippo}]
    2: complete failure; "all my efforts led to naught"
    

Naught \Naught\, adv.
   In no degree; not at all. --Chaucer.
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         To wealth or sovereign power he naught applied.
                                                  --Fairfax.
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Naught \Naught\, a.
   1. Of no value or account; worthless; bad; useless.
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            It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer. --Prov.
                                                  xx. 14.
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            Go, get you to your house; begone, away!
            All will be naught else.              --Shak.
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            Things naught and things indifferent. --Hooker.
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   2. Hence, vile; base; naughty. [Obs.]
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            No man can be stark naught at once.   --Fuller.
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Naught \Naught\ (n[add]t), n. [OE. naught, nought, naht, nawiht,
   AS. n[=a]wiht, n[=a]uht, n[=a]ht; ne not + [=a] ever + wiht
   thing, whit; hence, not ever a whit. See {No}, adv. {Whit},
   and cf. {Aught}, {Not}.]
   1. Nothing. [Written also {nought}.]
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            Doth Job fear God for naught?         --Job i. 9.
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   2. The arithmetical character 0; a cipher. See {Cipher}.
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   {To set at naught}, to treat as of no account; to disregard;
      to despise; to defy; to treat with ignominy. "Ye have set
      at naught all my counsel." --Prov. i. 25.
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42 Moby Thesaurus words for "naught":
      a little thing, aught, cipher, collapse, destruction, disaster,
      failure, goose egg, hardly anything, inessential, insignificancy,
      marginal matter, matter of indifference, mere nothing,
      minor matter, nada, nichts, nihil, nihility, nil, nix,
      no great matter, no such thing, nothing, nothing at all,
      nothing in particular, nothing on earth, nothing to signify,
      nothing whatever, nought, nullity, ought, paltry affair,
      peu de chose, rien du tout, ruin, scarcely anything, technicality,
      thing of naught, wind, zero, zilch