Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Zero; nothing.
  • noun A person regarded as being insignificant; a nonentity.
  • adjective Amounting to nothing; nil.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun informal nothing.
  • adjective nothing; zero

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a quantity of no importance

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps from alteration of z(ero) + (n)il.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Related to creative origin of Mr. Zilch in Ballyhoo, 1930's humor magazine.

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