AUGHT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does aught mean? 

• AUGHT (noun)
  The noun AUGHT has 1 sense:

1. a quantity of no importance

  Familiarity information: AUGHT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AUGHT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A quantity of no importance

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

aught; cipher; cypher; goose egg; nada; naught; nil; nix; nothing; null; zero; zilch; zip; zippo

Context example:

I didn't hear zilch about it

Hypernyms ("aught" is a kind of...):

relative quantity (a quantity relative to some purpose)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "aught"):

nihil ((Latin) nil; nothing (as used by a sheriff after an unsuccessful effort to serve a writ))

bugger all; Fanny Adams; fuck all; sweet Fanny Adams (little or nothing at all)

 Context examples 

And Clerval—could aught ill entrench on the noble spirit of Clerval?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Has he deigned to add aught of civility to his ordinary style? —for I dare not hope, he continued in a lower and more serious tone, that he is improved in essentials.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Nor did it enter his head that he could have done aught otherwise than what he had done.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Is there aught amiss, that you should stare so?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Keesh looked up and smiled. Nay, O Klosh-Kwan. It is not for a boy to know aught of witches, and of witches I know nothing.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

I had to deceive a fine ear: for aught I knew it might now be listening.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Ye don't see aught funny! Ha! ha!

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I know nothing of where the pig was either bred or born; but he may have been the squire’s for aught I can tell: you know this country better than I do, take my pig and give me the goose.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

I still believe him, in virtue of this carriage, his animal spirits, his delightful voice, his handsome face and figure, and, for aught I know, of some inborn power of attraction besides (which I think a few people possess), to have carried a spell with him to which it was a natural weakness to yield, and which not many persons could withstand.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Once, the terror of this giddy sweep overpowered me, and for a while I clung on, hand and foot, weak and trembling, unable to search the sea for the missing boats or to behold aught of the sea but that which roared beneath and strove to overwhelm the Ghost.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)