come to nothing

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

come to nothing (third-person singular simple present comes to nothing, present participle coming to nothing, simple past came to nothing, past participle come to nothing)

1. (idiomatic) To fail completely; to have no result.

   The Bank of England's anti-inflation efforts will come to nothing if the US Federal Reserve refuse to join in the plan.

   • 2022 May 18, Peter Robinson, “Rail freight: innovations... and failures”, in RAIL, number 957, page 54, photo caption:

     Yet another road/railer trial that came to nothing.

Synonyms

• come to nought
• die in the ass (vulgar, slang)
• go to shit (vulgar, slang)

Translations

fail; have no result

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 失敗／失败 (zh) (shībài), 化為烏有／化为乌有 (zh) (huàwéiwūyǒu), 不了了之 (zh) (bùliǎoliǎozhī), 毫無結果／毫无结果 (háowú jiéguǒ)

• Czech: přijít vniveč
• Finnish: mennä hukkaan
• French: ne servir à rien
• German: im Sande verlaufen (de), es zu nichts bringen, zu nichts führen
• Hungarian: füstbe megy (hu), kútba esik (hu)
• Ido: abortar (io)
• Latin: pereō
• Maori: takahē (mi)
• Russian: ни к чему́ не привести́ (ni k čemú ne privestí)
• Spanish: no servir para nada, quedar en nada, quedar en agua de borrajas, salir huero
• Swedish: gå om intet (sv), rinna ut i sanden (sv), gå i stöpet (sv)