nil
/nil/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Noun:
- Nothing, zero: "nil" refers to the complete absence of quantity or value; it means zero or nothing.
- A score of zero: In sports, especially British English, "nil" is used to indicate a score of zero.
Examples of Usage
- Noun:
- The chances of success are virtually nil. (There is almost no chance of success.)
- The final score was three-nil. (The final score was three to zero.)
- His contribution to the project was nil. (He contributed nothing to the project.)
Advanced Usage
- "to reduce to nil": to completely eliminate or bring down to nothing.
- The new policy reduced the error rate to nil. (The new policy completely eliminated errors.)
Variants and Related Words
- Nada (n, informal): nothing.
- I know nada about car engines. (I know nothing about car engines.)
- Zilch (n, informal): zero, nothing.
- We got zilch from the investigation. (We got nothing from the investigation.)
- Zero (n): the number 0; nothing.
- The temperature dropped to zero. (The temperature dropped to 0 degrees.)
Synonyms
- Nothing: not anything; no single thing.
- Naught (also nought): nothing.
- Goose egg (n, informal, chiefly US): a score of zero.
Related Idioms and Phrases
- For nil: for nothing, without any result or gain.
- All our hard work was for nil. (All our hard work was for nothing.)
- Nil by mouth (medical instruction): a directive that a patient is not to eat or drink anything.
- The patient is nil by mouth before the surgery. (The patient must not consume anything before the surgery.)
Noun
- 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