The Collaborative International Dictionary
Nothing \Noth"ing\, n. [From no, a. + thing.]
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Not anything; no thing (in the widest sense of the word thing); -- opposed to anything and something.
Yet had his aspect nothing of severe.
--Dryden. Nonexistence; nonentity; absence of being; nihility; nothingness.
--Shak.-
A thing of no account, value, or note; something irrelevant and impertinent; something of comparative unimportance; utter insignificance; a trifle.
Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought.
--Is. xli. 2 -
'T is nothing, says the fool; but, says the friend, This nothing, sir, will bring you to your end. --Dryden. 4. (Arith.) A cipher; naught. Nothing but, only; no more than. --Chaucer. To make nothing of.
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.Not to understand; as, I could make nothing of what he said.
Wiktionary
adv. only
Usage examples of "nothing but".
Yet when she looked back to the land that she had planted, she could see nothing but the waving grasses of the desolate plains.
StarDrifter had done nothing but what she asked that night, just holding her and telling her how much he loved her.
Every day he spent time teaching the unborn twins some of their Enchanter skills, and though they responded well to him, he knew they spared their mother nothing but indifference and hostility.
Several scouts have been over the Mountains, but there is nothing but blasted peaks and shadowed valleys.
His eyes were sharp, their Icarii far-sightedness enhanced by his powers as an Enchanter, but even so he could discern nothing but bare rock, blasted and scraped by ice sliding down from the peaks.
Axis nothing but pain and grief, and I hope DragonStar will bring you more joy.
You, at least can enjoy the resurgent summer, for I shall have nothing but snow for some weeks to come.
Ravensbundmen standing along the shore he saw nothing but longing on each face.
To their left, the Icescarp Alps rose in waves to the west, and Axis spared them a long look, but to the north and east there was nothing but flat snow land.
The Prophecy is nothing but idiot gabble for no reason other than babble and confusion.
Wanting nothing but to be rid of the headache hammering in his head, he staggered to the washbowl.
I ripped open the letters I received from each school with eager anticipation, fully expecting to receive nothing but good news.
It did nothing but frustrate and irritate me, so after an inept attempt at actually trying to work within the system, I was pissed off at both sides.
Oh wait, no, no, no, what if I open it up and there is nothing but Monopoly cards in there?
My head was filled with nothing but clutter, unwanted thoughts about myself, and judgmental thoughts about my partner.