Meanings
- attributiveDoing nothing, not taking any action.
It became clear that a chronic do-nothing approach to the problem's management would no longer suffice.
1 more example
Manchester needs more railway capacity. Just how that is provided until the new platforms are built for HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail, I will leave for the experts, but a do-nothing approach is not going to be helpful and quite justifiably will create more arguments that the North is being ignored.
2020 April 22, “Letters: Open Access: Castlefield conundrum”, in Rail, page 31
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA lazy person.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectivecharacterized by inability or unwillingness to work toward a goal or assume responsibility
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Essentially deverbal in nature, albeit not from a unitary phrasal verb, but from the phrase do nothing, which English expresses as a verb phrase containing a complement.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish laiskuri, laiskamato
- laiskurilazy person
- laiskamatolazy person
Polish nierób
- nieróblazy person
Ukrainian неро́ба, не́ро́б
- неро́ба (neróba)lazy person
- не́ро́б (nérób)lazy person
Cite this entry
do-nothing. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/do-nothing
“do-nothing.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/do-nothing. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “do-nothing,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/do-nothing.
Source: do-nothing on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.