nil Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a quantity of no importance
    cypher; aught; zip; nada; zero; nix; cipher; zilch; goose egg; zippo; nothing; naught; null.
    • it looked like nothing I had ever seen before
    • reduced to nil all the work we had done
    • we racked up a pathetic goose egg
    • it was all for naught
    • I didn't hear zilch about it

WordNet

Nil
Etymology
See Nill, v. t.
Definitions
  1. Will not. Obs. Chaucer.
Nil noun & adjective
Etymology
L., a contr. of nihil.
Definitions
  1. Nothing; of no account; worthless; -- a term often used for canceling, in accounts or bookkeeping. A. J. Ellis. (computers) A special value used in certain computer languages to mean "no value", to be distinguished from the value zero.

Webster 1913