from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Nothing \Noth"ing\, n. [From no, a. + thing.]
1. Not anything; no thing (in the widest sense of the word
thing); -- opposed to {anything} and {something}.
[1913 Webster]
Yet had his aspect nothing of severe. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
2. Nonexistence; nonentity; absence of being; nihility;
nothingness. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
3. A thing of no account, value, or note; something
irrelevant and impertinent; something of comparative
unimportance; utter insignificance; a trifle.
[1913 Webster]
Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought.
--Is. xli. 24.
[1913 Webster]
'T is nothing, says the fool; but, says the friend,
This nothing, sir, will bring you to your end.
--Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
4. (Arith.) A cipher; naught.
[1913 Webster]
{Nothing but}, only; no more than. --Chaucer.
{To make nothing of}.
(a) To make no difficulty of; to consider as trifling or
important. "We are industrious to preserve our bodies
from slavery, but we make nothing of suffering our
souls to be slaves to our lusts." --Ray.
(b) Not to understand; as, I could make nothing of what he
said.
[1913 Webster]