do-nothing, n. and a.
(ˈduːˌnʌθɪŋ)
A. n. One who does nothing; an idler.
| 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 259/1 It is not for a do nothing that this office is ordeined. 1624 Massinger Renegado iv. i, Such a goodman Do-nothing. 1855 Faraday in Bence Jones Life (1870) II. 361, I cannot imagine you a do-nothing. 1887 Spectator 15 Oct. 1378 A class of do-nothings who at some previous time had owned the land. |
B. adj. That does nothing; characterized by doing nothing; idle, indolent.
| 1832 W. Irving Alhambra II. 84 The invalids, old women, and other curious do-nothing folk. 1839 Carlyle Chartism ix. 169 A do-nothing guidance; and it is a do-something World! 1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. IV. liv. 99 He was..very fond of yachting: its dreamy, do-nothing absolutism. |
Hence doˈnothingism, doˈnothingness, the habit or practice of doing nothing; the condition of doing nothing; idleness; indolence.
| 1814 Jane Austen Mansf. Park (1870) III. viii. 340 A situation of similar affluence and do-nothing-ness. 1839 Carlyle Chartism vii. 152 Self-cancelling Donothingism. 1879 Mrs. Houston Wild West 77 Gaunt, enfeebled-looking labourers abused for their idleness, their do-nothingness. 1891 Sat. Rev. 5 Sept. 267/2 Dangerous apathy and donothingism. |