do-nothing

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English

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Etymology

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Essentially deverbal in nature, albeit not from a unitary phrasal verb; from the phrase do nothing, which English expresses as a clausal phrase.

Adjective

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do-nothing

  1. (attributive) doing nothing, not taking any action.
    • 2020 April 22, “Letters: Open Access: Castlefield conundrum”, in Rail, page 31:
      Manchester needs more railway capacity. Just how that is provided until the new platforms are built for HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail, I will leave for the experts, but a do-nothing approach is not going to be helpful and quite justifiably will create more arguments that the North is being ignored.

Noun

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do-nothing (plural do-nothings)

  1. A lazy person.
    Synonyms: (archaic) do-naught, faineant, slacker; see also Thesaurus:idler

Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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References

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