nothing doing | Idiomator

Meaning: (dated,idiomatic,now chieflyIndia)Absolutelynot;definitelyno.1917,William MacLeod Raine, chapter 11, inThe Sheriff's Son:"I'll fix his clock all right.""Nothing doing. I won't have it."1920,Victor Appleton, chapter 1, inTom Swift And His Undersea Search:"[P]erhaps you might sell them a submarine or some of your diving apparatus.""Nothing doing, Ned. We've got other plans."1946November 4, “MANAGEMENT: Bundy Saves & Shares”, inTime:[T]he employes of Detroit's Bundy Tubing Co. wanted a raise of 18 1/2 cents an hour. Said Bundy flatly:nothing doing.2008,Preeta Samarasan,Evening is the Whole Day,→ISBN, page255:[S]he'd consoled herself with a fresh plan: she'd refuse to go to her father when he came back.Nothing doing, she'd say.; Used other than figuratively or idiomatically:seenothing,‎doing: nothing that is currently occurring; nothing going on.1846October 1 –1848April 1,Charles Dickens, chapter 4, inDombey and Son, London:Bradbury and Evans,[…], published1848,→OCLC:"You see, Walter," he said, "in truth this business is merely a habit with me . . . but there'snothing doing,nothing doing. . . . I hardly know where I am myself; much less where my customers are."1870–1871(date written),Mark Twain[pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXIX, inRoughing It, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company[et al.], published1872,→OCLC,page214:There wasnothing doingin the district—no mining—no milling—no productive effort—no income—[…]1922,Agatha Christie, chapter 11, inThe Secret Adversary:I began to think that there wasnothing doing, that he'd just come on the trip for his health.2010,Lee Child,Persuader,→ISBN,page58:There wasnothing doingin the kitchen.

Examples:

EN: Oh, nothing doing.
ES: Ah, no.
EN: Ain't nothing doing around here.
ES: No hay nada que hacer por aquí.
EN: Yes, and nothing doing:
ES: Sí, y como si nada.
EN: nothing doing.
ES: Nada de eso.
EN: - Oh, nothing doing, boss.
ES: - En absoluto.
EN: But the sign outside will say "Mr. Stew Smith" and you'll have to be Mrs. Stew Smith, or there's nothing doing.
ES: Pero en la puerta pondrá "Mr. Stew Smith" y tú tendrás que ser la señora de Stew Smith, o no hay nada que hacer.
EN: I tried to get a date, but nothing doing.
ES: Quise conseguir una cita pero no hubo manera.
EN: I said nothing doing tried to back his way out of the match
ES: Le contesté que no y me dijo que no combatiría. - ¿Qué no combatiría?
EN: But if I wanted something else from you, no nothing doing.
ES: Pero si hubiera quería algo más de ti, no no habría nada que hacer. ¡Quita las manos!
EN: There's nothing doing here.
ES: Aquí no hay nada que hacer.
EN: No, sir, nothing doing.
ES: ¡Ni hablar!
EN: No, nothing doing, Gert.
ES: De ninguna manera, Gert.
EN: Out of town, nothing doing, get a lawyer.
ES: ¿Salir de la ciudad? , de eso nada. Consígueme un abogado.
EN: Oh, no, no, nothing doing.
ES: No, no, eso es imposible.
EN: Now if you take my advice you go off home, because there's nothing doing here. - Now go on. Get off.
ES: - Sigan mi consejo y márchense pues no hay nada que hacer acá.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).