单词 | to come to naught |
释义 | > as lemmasto come (also †become, †go, etc.) to naught b. to come (also †become, †go, etc.) to naught: (in early use literal) to become nothing, to perish; (in later use chiefly figurative) to come to nothing, to be in vain. Cf. nought pron. 2b. Now archaic and literary. ΚΠ OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Cambr. Gg.3.28) i. 182 For ði is se man betera gif he gode geðihð, þonne ealle ða nytenu sindon, for ðan ðe hi ealle gewurðað to nahte. lOE Metrical Charm: Against Wen (Royal 4 A.xiv) 13 Alswa litel þu gewurþe þet þu nawiht gewurþe. c1300 in C. Brown Eng. Lyrics 13th Cent. (1932) 79 Al sal gon þat man hier houet, and al it scal bicome to naut. 1340 Ayenbite (1866) 91 (MED) Þe drope of þe deawe..ualþ agrund and to naȝte becomþ. 1592 T. Kyd Spanish Trag. ii. sig. Dv Endeuour you to winne your daughters thoughts, If she giue back, all this will come to naught. 1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Perir,..to come to ruine, or to naught. 1669 S. Pepys Diary 6 Mar. (1976) IX. 471 He joins with me in his fears that all will go to naught as matters are now managed. 1705 E. Ward Fair Shell but Rotten Kernel i. 11 Had that good Doctrine all along been taught, Those Ills that prosper'd, would have come to naught. 1849 H. Melville Mardi II. liv. 227 His diabolical machinations against this ineffable land must soon come to naught. 1869 ‘M. Twain’ Innocents Abroad xi. 104 It was a pity that so many weeks of dreary labor should have come to naught at last. 1929 A. Pollitzer Let. 17 Aug. in G. O'Keeffe & A. Pollitzer Lovingly, Georgia (1990) 277 Producers asking him to do press for plays—which are such flops that the job comes to naught. 1988 H. C. R. Landon Mozart's Last Year xiii. 195 Wolfgang's next scheme was to import Aloysia and her father to Paris..but this plan came to naught. < as lemmas |
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