See do-nothing in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
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184
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"ref": "2020 April 22, “Letters: Open Access: Castlefield conundrum”, in Rail, page 31:",
"text": "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.",
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"Doing nothing, not taking any action."
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"(attributive) Doing nothing, not taking any action."
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}
{
"etymology_text": "Essentially deverbal in nature, albeit not from a unitary phrasal verb, but from the phrase do nothing, which English expresses as a verb phrase containing a complement.",
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{
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{
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{
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{
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{
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"word": "idler"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:doer",
"word": "layabout"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:doer",
"word": "lollygagger"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:doer",
"word": "scrounger"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:doer",
"word": "slacker"
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{
"source": "Thesaurus:doer",
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{
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"word": "bum"
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{
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"word": "couch potato"
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{
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"word": "dawdler"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "deadbeat"
},
{
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"word": "dogfucker"
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{
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{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "do-nothing"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"tags": [
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{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
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{
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{
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"word": "faineant"
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{
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"word": "flaneur"
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{
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"word": "footler"
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{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"tags": [
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"word": "get-nothing"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "goldbricker"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"tags": [
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],
"word": "goof-off"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "lallygag"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "lollygagger"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "laggard"
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{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "layabout"
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{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
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"word": "lazy ass"
},
{
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"word": "lazybones"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
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"word": "lazy louse"
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{
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"word": "lidderon"
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{
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"word": "lie-abed"
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{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "loafer"
},
{
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"tags": [
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"word": "loiter-sack"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"tags": [
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"word": "lounge lizard"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "lounger"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"tags": [
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"word": "morepork"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "poop"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"tags": [
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"word": "ragabash"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "shirker"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "slacker"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "slow belly"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "slugabed"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "slug-a-bed"
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{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "slugabug"
},
{
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"word": "sluggabed"
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{
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"word": "sluggard"
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{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "sofa spud"
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{
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"word": "tarrier"
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{
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"word": "truant"
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"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "lazy person",
"word": "laiskuri"
},
{
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"lang": "Finnish",
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{
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"roman": "neróba",
"sense": "lazy person",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "неро́ба"
},
{
"code": "uk",
"lang": "Ukrainian",
"roman": "nérób",
"sense": "lazy person",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "не́ро́б"
}
]
}
],
"word": "do-nothing"
}
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"etymology_text": "Essentially deverbal in nature, albeit not from a unitary phrasal verb, but from the phrase do nothing, which English expresses as a verb phrase containing a complement.",
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"Doing nothing, not taking any action."
],
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"(attributive) Doing nothing, not taking any action."
],
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}
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{
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"word": "do-nothing"
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"word": "do-naught"
},
{
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"word": "faineant"
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{
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"word": "idler"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:doer",
"word": "layabout"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:doer",
"word": "lollygagger"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:doer",
"word": "scrounger"
},
{
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"word": "slacker"
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{
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"links": [
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"synonyms": [
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{
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"word": "bum"
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{
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"word": "couch potato"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "dawdler"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "deadbeat"
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{
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"word": "dogfucker"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"tags": [
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],
"word": "do-naught"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "do-nothing"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"tags": [
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"word": "dosser"
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{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "idler"
},
{
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"tags": [
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"word": "idleton"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "faineant"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "flaneur"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "footler"
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{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"tags": [
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],
"word": "get-nothing"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "goldbricker"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"tags": [
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],
"word": "goof-off"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "lallygag"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "lollygagger"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "laggard"
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{
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"word": "layabout"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"tags": [
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"word": "lazy ass"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"tags": [
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],
"word": "lazybones"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"tags": [
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"word": "lazy louse"
},
{
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"tags": [
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"dialectal",
"rare"
],
"word": "lidderon"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "lie-abed"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "loafer"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"tags": [
"obsolete"
],
"word": "loiter-sack"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"tags": [
"slang"
],
"word": "lounge lizard"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "lounger"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"tags": [
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"New-Zealand"
],
"word": "morepork"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "poop"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"tags": [
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],
"word": "ragabash"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "shirker"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "slacker"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "slow belly"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "slugabed"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "slug-a-bed"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "slugabug"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "sluggabed"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "sluggard"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "sofa spud"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "tarrier"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:idler",
"word": "truant"
}
]
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "lazy person",
"word": "laiskuri"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "lazy person",
"word": "laiskamato"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "lazy person",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "nierób"
},
{
"code": "uk",
"lang": "Ukrainian",
"roman": "neróba",
"sense": "lazy person",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "неро́ба"
},
{
"code": "uk",
"lang": "Ukrainian",
"roman": "nérób",
"sense": "lazy person",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "не́ро́б"
}
],
"word": "do-nothing"
}
Download raw JSONL data for do-nothing meaning in English (6.5kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-06-07 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-06-01 using wiktextract (92124b4 and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.