Do-nothing

Definition: Do-nothing

Do-nothing

Adjective

1. Characterized by inability or unwillingness to work toward a goal or assume responsibility; "a do-nothing government".

Noun

1. Person who does no work.

Date "do-nothing" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1832. (references)

Synonyms: Do-nothing

Synonyms: do-nothing(a) (adj), bum (n), idler (n), layabout (n), loafer (n). (additional references)

Synonyms by domain: do nothing (language), don't, when in doubt.

Domain	Usage
Movie/TV Titles	Do-nothing Machine (1957)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

"Do-nothing" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Do-nothing" is used about 3 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	100%	3	202,518

Language		Translations for "do-nothing"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Danish		nulalternativ (do-nothing strategy), blindordre (do-nothing operation, no-operation instruction). (various references)

Dutch		niets-doenstrategie (do-nothing strategy), bewerkingsloze opdracht (do-nothing operation, no-operation instruction). (various references)

French		stratégie de l'immobilisme (do-nothing strategy), instruction ineffective (do-nothing operation), instruction de remplissage (do-nothing operation). (various references)

German		nichts tun (idle). (various references)

Italian		strategia dell'immobilismo (do-nothing strategy), istruzione che non compie alcuna operazione (do-nothing operation, no-operation instruction). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		閑職 (do-nothing job, leisurely post, sinecure). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		か�"しょく (a cold color, a compound color, do-nothing job, eating between meals, feeling, government service, leisurely post, sensation, sense of touch, sinecure, snacking, the rotting of lumber stored with poor air circulation). (various references)

Pig Latin		o-nothingday

Portuguese		faz-nada. (various references)

Russian		лентяй (bummer, faineant, lazybones, lazy-bones, poke, slacker, slob, slug, slug-abed, sluggard, truant, wag, work-shy), бездельник (bum, chair warmer, dangler, do nothing, do-naught, doodle, footer, fribble, good for nothing, idler, layabout, loafer, loon, lounger, ne'er do well, ne'erdoweel, rapscallion, scalawag, scallawag, scallywag, scapegrace, skulker, sluggard, trifler, twiddler, vagabond), пустой (addle, barren, blank, chaffy, empty, feather-brained, feckless, fiddling, foppish, frivolous, frothy, gassy, gossipy, hollow, light, light-headed, null, sunken, vacant, vacuous, vapid). (various references)

Spanish		instrucción de relleno (do-nothing operation, no-operation instruction). (various references)

Vietnamese		người vô công rỗi nghề (do-naught, gaper), người lười biếng (do-naught, slacker, slug-abed), người không l� m ăn gì cả (do-naught). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "d-g-h-i-n-n-o-o-t"
	-2 letters: hooding, hooting, nothing.
	-3 letters: dhooti, doting, gonion, honing, hotdog, noting, notion, oohing, toning.
	-4 letters: dhoti, dight, dingo, doing, ingot, night, ninth, niton, ohing, onion, ootid, thing, thong, tigon, tondi, tondo.
	-5 letters: ding, dint, doit, dong, doth, good, goon, hind, hint, hong, hood, hoot, into, nigh, nodi, noon, onto, thin, thio, ting, tong, toon.
	Words containing the letters "d-g-h-i-n-n-o-o-t"
	+4 letters: gonadotrophin, hydrogenation, undershooting.
	+5 letters: gonadotrophins, hydrogenations.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.