"when in doubt, do nowt" meaning in English

See when in doubt, do nowt in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Rhymes: -aʊt Etymology: nowt is a dialectal form of nought, used here for the rhyme. Etymology templates: {{m|it|nowt}} nowt, {{m|it|nought}} nought Head templates: {{head|en|proverb|head=}} when in doubt, do nowt, {{en-proverb}} when in doubt, do nowt
  1. When faced with a difficult decision, it is better not to take unnecessary risks. Synonyms: when in doubt, abstain, when in doubt, leave it out Translations (it is better not to take risks): jos et tiedä, mitä teet, älä tee mitään (Finnish), dans le doute, abstiens-toi (French), nel dubbio astieniti (Italian), nie ryzykuj niepotrzebnie (Polish)

Download JSON data for when in doubt, do nowt meaning in English (2.0kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "it",
        "2": "nowt"
      },
      "expansion": "nowt",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "it",
        "2": "nought"
      },
      "expansion": "nought",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "nowt is a dialectal form of nought, used here for the rhyme.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "when in doubt, do nowt",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "when in doubt, do nowt",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
        },
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          "parents": [
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          "parents": [
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        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "When faced with a difficult decision, it is better not to take unnecessary risks."
      ],
      "id": "en-when_in_doubt,_do_nowt-en-proverb-wwvatvru",
      "links": [
        [
          "difficult",
          "difficult"
        ],
        [
          "decision",
          "decision"
        ],
        [
          "unnecessary",
          "unnecessary"
        ],
        [
          "risk",
          "risk"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "when in doubt, abstain"
        },
        {
          "word": "when in doubt, leave it out"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "it is better not to take risks",
          "word": "jos et tiedä, mitä teet, älä tee mitään"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "it is better not to take risks",
          "word": "dans le doute, abstiens-toi"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "it is better not to take risks",
          "word": "nel dubbio astieniti"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "it is better not to take risks",
          "word": "nie ryzykuj niepotrzebnie"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "rhymes": "-aʊt"
    }
  ],
  "word": "when in doubt, do nowt"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "it",
        "2": "nowt"
      },
      "expansion": "nowt",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "it",
        "2": "nought"
      },
      "expansion": "nought",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "nowt is a dialectal form of nought, used here for the rhyme.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "when in doubt, do nowt",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "when in doubt, do nowt",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English proverbs",
        "English rhyming phrases",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "Rhymes:English/aʊt",
        "Rhymes:English/aʊt/5 syllables"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "When faced with a difficult decision, it is better not to take unnecessary risks."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "difficult",
          "difficult"
        ],
        [
          "decision",
          "decision"
        ],
        [
          "unnecessary",
          "unnecessary"
        ],
        [
          "risk",
          "risk"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "when in doubt, abstain"
        },
        {
          "word": "when in doubt, leave it out"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "rhymes": "-aʊt"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "it is better not to take risks",
      "word": "jos et tiedä, mitä teet, älä tee mitään"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "it is better not to take risks",
      "word": "dans le doute, abstiens-toi"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "it is better not to take risks",
      "word": "nel dubbio astieniti"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "it is better not to take risks",
      "word": "nie ryzykuj niepotrzebnie"
    }
  ],
  "word": "when in doubt, do nowt"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-24 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (82c8ff9 and f4967a5). 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.