not

From Middle English not, nat, variant of noght, naht (“not, nothing”), from Old English *nōht, nāht (“nought, nothing”), short for nōwiht, nāwiht (“nothing”, literally “not anything”), corresponding to ne (“not”) + ōwiht, āwiht (“anything”), corresponding to ā (“ever, always”) + wiht (“thing, creature”).
Cognate with Scots nat, naucht (“not”), Saterland Frisian nit (“not”), West Frisian net (“not”), Dutch niet (“not”), German nicht (“not”). Compare nought, naught and aught. More at no, wight, whit.

That day was not the best day of my life. (meaning the day was bad or awful)

It was not my favorite movie of all time. (meaning the speaker dislikes or strongly dislikes the movie)

In the not too distant future my view on the matter might be not a million miles away from yours.

I wonder if I shouldn't see a doctor - I've been feeling funny the last few days.

(litotes) Used to indicate the opposite or near opposite, often in a form of understatement.


oil painting

en-noun

oil painting (countable and uncountable, plural oil paintings)

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"Very lovely!" he said, staring her straight in the face.
"You needn't try and be funny!" she said. "If you mean me, I'm no oil-painting, and I know it!"

1920, Henry St. John Cooper, “Sunny Ducrow”, in Putnam's, page 117:

Wayne Swan: All I can say is that she's a much more attractive person than the Prime Minister.
George Brandis: You're not exactly an oil painting yourself, Wayne.

2007 "Virginia Trioli talks to George Brandis and Wayne Swan" Lateline ABC (Australia) 14 September 2007

(British, humorous, litotes, chiefly in the negative) A physically attractive person.


no spring chicken

From the description of a young person as a spring chicken.

He ran up three flights of stairs, and he's no spring chicken.

You know the world. You are no spring chicken.

1908, Upton Sinclair, chapter 5, in The Money Changers:

A real candidate arose to challenge dapper Robert Rice ("Buncombe Bob") Reynolds, aging coxcomb of the Senate. The candidate, no spring chicken himself: tall, lean Clyde Roark Hoey (pronounced Hooey), 65, one of the most popular Governors the state ever had.

He doubtless hoped for a sympathetic ruling from President Reagan, at 70 no spring chicken himself.

1981 November 23, “Newest Sub, Oldest Sailor”, in Time:

(informal, litotes) Said of a person who is no longer particularly young.


not half bad

It was his first attempt at cooking, but I tried it and it was not half bad.

(idiomatic, litotes) Pretty good, imperfect but more than OK.


not bad

Near-synonym: nonbad

What did you think of the guitarist?
Not bad, but that solo could have been better.

(litotes) Reasonably good; almost good; mediocre.


up to no good

He acts like an angel when his parents get home, but the rest of the time he's up to no good.

(idiomatic, litotes) Misbehaving, being mischievous.


not a pretty sight

The navvy was certainly not a pretty sight. His muscular arms and legs were all a-sprawl and his head hung back at a strange angle to his body.

1890, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 44, in The Firm of Girdlestone:

Bud was not a pretty sight. Four days and nights of trying to see how much whisky he could drink, and how long he could play poker without going to sleep or going broke, had left their mark on his face.

1918, B. M. Bower, chapter 11, in Cabin Fever:

(euphemistic, sometimes humorous) Something visually unappealing, ranging from mildly unattractive to utterly disgusting in appearance.

Her lover, cheek by jowl with Maria, at the head of that army of Portuguese ragamuffins, was not a pretty sight.

1909, Jack London, chapter 35, in Martin Eden:

The Tariff Bill was rounded into shape for final passage by the House last week. It was not a pretty sight for soft-hearted political theorists.

1929 June 23, “Impelled to Passage”, in Time:

They showed little remorse in using this power to its full extent, against each other, against smaller producers and against the laboring poor, including strong-arm tactics of no legality. The result was not a pretty sight.

2002, Simon Szreter, “The State of Social Capital”, in Theory and Society, volume 31, number 5, page 597:

(idiomatic, by extension) Something disappointing, disquieting, disreputable, or otherwise unworthy of admiration.


do without

en-verb

do without (third-person singular simple present does without, present participle doing without, simple past did without, past participle done without)

does without (present singular third-person)
doing without (participle present)
did without (past)
done without (participle past)

Coordinate term: go without

If you are prepared to do without a break in the summer, we could have a really good skiing holiday in winter.

During the Great Depression, she learned to do without.

I could do without the sarcasm.

Let us consider the charges against this individual. Let us ask, Can we do without him?

1916 March 11, H.G. Wells, “What is Coming”, in Saturday Evening Post:

We never owned a home. We moved all the time. But we never did without.

1990 February 4, Pam Mitchell, quoting Gerry Scoppettuolo, “Pro-Union And Queer”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 29, page 18:

He liked Tom all right. […] Sampson and Bullock he could do without, however. Especially Sampson, who was too much of a grammar-school-type swot ever to be quite the thing.

1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section I, page 16:

(chiefly transitive) To manage despite the lack of.

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see do, without.


no mean feat

en-noun

no mean feat (countable and uncountable, plural no mean feats)

The older me, the one who prefers wine to fizz, wishes Leerhsen had more to say about things like: a) the elite and vernacular food worlds pre- and post-Bourdain; b) how Bourdain walked a moral tightrope across the conventions of travel writing and reporting, no mean feat for a wealthy white man in skinny jeans; […].

2022 October 3, Dwitght Garner, “Anthony Bourdain’s New Biography: Light on Subtlety, Heavy on Grit”, in The New York Times:

Opening a new railway is no mean feat at the best of times, but the Elizabeth Line had its own challenges.

2023 October 4, Richard Foster, “New operator enters at number one”, in RAIL, number 993, page 33:

(litotes) A laudable triumph of great difficulty


not the sharpest knife in the drawer

not the sharpest knife in the drawer (plural not the sharpest knives in the drawer)

not the sharpest knives in the drawer (plural)

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You can block or tackle, or you can do some exotic things with a football cradled under your arm, but you're not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to book learning.

1994 September 5, Richard Hoffer, “Get Smart!”, in Sports Illustrated:

2000, Tami Hoag, Ashes to Ashes, →ISBN, page 378:

2003,Lucille Bluth, Arrested Development, S:1 E:3 “And I know he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he's sensitive, Michael,”
“He fits in a lot of ways, but he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, is he?”
“Maybe he just plays it stupid so people expect less of him.”

[A] man who has lost every dollar he ever won–somewhere north of $US300 million ($370 million)–and done three years for rape is possibly not the sharpest knife in the drawer, nor the most likeable.

2009 August 11, Paul Byrnes, “Tyson”, in Brisbane Times, Australia:

Intelligence = 1 / Title. The higher the level in the organization, the inversely less intelligent they are. Folk at the top have human skills and business savvy, but despite all the press, most are not the sharpest knives in the drawer—after all, that’s your job!

2022, Lawrence S. Maisel, Robert J. Zwerling, Jesper H. Sorensen, AI-Enabled Analytics for Business: A Roadmap for Becoming an Analytics Powerhouse, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., →ISBN, page 192:

not the brightest bulb in the chandelier

(humorous, euphemistic) Lacking in intelligence; dimwitted.

ne pas avoir inventé le fil à couper le beurre


not a little

He is not a little saddened at the departure of the Dodgers. He's thinking of moving from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.


not a little

Not a little ink has been spilled on this issue.


exact science

精密科學 /精密科学

field of science capable of quantitative expression

Jury selection isn't an exact science.

It is not an exact science, but if England can play with such distinction again then nobody should be too concerned about everything going horribly wrong.

2013 October 11, Daniel Taylor, The Guardian:

1967 Harry Levin, Why Literary Criticism Is Not an Exact Science (book title) (Harvard University Press)

(litotes, chiefly in the negative) Used contrastively to characterize something as imprecise or relying on intuition or heuristics.


not the sharpest tool in the shed

not the sharpest tool in the shed US.ogg

Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me
I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed.

1999, Greg Camp, “All Star”, in Astro Lounge, performed by Smash Mouth, Los Angeles: Interscope Records, track 2:


no flies on

A litotes suggesting one is not torpid enough to have flies settle.

"You're jest about the very woman I'm looking for, miss. Lithe—that's what I call you. I kin put you in the way of making your pile, I kin. This is a bonâ-fide offer. No flies on my business!"

1899, Grant Allen, chapter 3, in Miss Cayley's Adventures:

I give you my word that there are no flies on his personal integrity, if that's what you mean.

1909, William Dean Howells, chapter 5, in A Hazard of New Fortunes:

"He knows what we want, you bet" he whispered. "No flies on that preacher. I like him. I like any man who can do things without a diagram and directions for using."

1914, Peter B. Kyne, chapter 13, in The Long Chance:

GERMAN. Wait! You are a young people.
AMERICAN. That is so; there are no flies on us.

1915, John Galsworthy, The Little Man, sc. 1:

"WestJet is tightly run, well managed, there are no flies on those guys," said Harry Gow, a board member of the Canadian Association of Airline Passengers.

2000 June 3, James Brooke, “A Budget Canadian Carrier Brings Back the Friendly Skies”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-10-31:

(idiomatic) No mental weaknesses, character defects, or other significant flaws belonging to.


not so hot

"How are you feeling?" / "Not so hot."

He wasn't feeling so hot, so he went home early.

His later work was not so hot.


in no small measure

The Inspecting Officer draws attention to the remarkable way in which the train held together after the final derailment; this was due in no small measure to the robustness of the buckeye couplings fitted to the coaches.

1960 March, “Talking of Trains: The Slough derailment”, in Trains Illustrated, page 132:


in no small part

in no small measure
in no small measure#English

(idiomatic) Synonym of in no small measure.


no prize pig

Jeptha Billingsley, who was no prize pig himself (he had been arrested for horse theft and assault with intent to murder), was to be taught a lesson, and the vigilantes made him cut down the McLemores.

2011, Richard Zelade, Lone Star Travel Guide to Central Texas, page 274:

After all Charlotte Arlene Hoggstett was no prize pig herself.

2012, R. Evans Pansing, Fact and Fiction: Fiction and Reality, page 29:

(litotes) Said of a person who is decidedly unattractive or undesirable.


non-incompetent

Well, these deadlines and quality requirements should be feasible as long as the company is willing to pay for non-incompetent personnel.