Definitions

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

  • pronoun No person; not anyone.
  • noun A person of no importance or influence.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun No person; no one.
  • noun Hence An unimportant or insignificant person; one who is not in fashionable society.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun No person; no one; not anybody.
  • noun colloq. A person of no influence or importance; an insignificant or contemptible person.

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

  • pronoun Not any person; the logical negation of somebody.
  • noun Someone who is not important or well-known.

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

  • noun a person of no influence

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

no +‎ body

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Examples

  • "There was nobody -- _nobody_ who had a right to think himself injured by your brother, even long before?"

    The Castle Of The Shadows 1901

  • "Mrs. Matthews says a charwoman and a little girl from the village used to be left alone in the house for months, to play any sort of games, with nobody to look after them -- _nobody_ -- while you were away!"

    Sir George Tressady — Volume I Humphry Ward 1885

  • Thus, whether Shakspeare were written by nobody or not, it seems pretty well proved that _nobody gave_ the plays to Shakspeare; so that, whether by inheritance, _purchase_, or divine afflatus, the man who wrote Shakspeare was -- William Shakspeare.

    Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 449 Volume 18, New Series, August 7, 1852 Various 1836

  • This thing has got into a feud, boy, and in a feud you cain't trust nobody -- _nobody_! "

    Judith of the Cumberlands Alice MacGowan

  • "The man's bringing a chair and smokes and liquor, and you'll let nobody in -- _nobody_.

    The Sins of Séverac Bablon Sax Rohmer 1921

  • Personally myself, "declared Mrs. Jackson modestly," I don't aim to expose my shoulder blades for nobody -- not for _nobody_. "

    The Lady Doc Caroline Lockhart 1916

  • How come again nobody is asking Obama about Donald Young?

    Obama says differences with Clinton 'infinitesimal' 2008

  • He faced me steadily and said a word nobody had ever said to me.

    Noble Norfleet Reynolds Price 2002

  • He faced me steadily and said a word nobody had ever said to me.

    Noble Norfleet Reynolds Price 2002

  • Larger plates pimping the fusion include a Walle Burger in a Shanghai pancake bun; pan-seared fluke w/ king crab & pork chili; a Creekstone Farms beef trio that includes slow-roasted short rib, filet mignon, and marrow; and mac-and-bleu-cheese-sided Sweet Chili Baby Back Ribs, a phrase nobody eating there has ever actually uttered.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Thrillist 2011

Comments

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  • I associated this word with nebula because nobody wanted to follow up nebula. mollusque, you're too smart for us. See skipvia's Free Association list.

    July 9, 2008

  • I'm nobody! Who are you?

    Are you nobody, too?

    Then there's a pair of us - don't tell!

    They'd banish us, you know!

    How dreary to be somebody!

    How public like a frog

    To tell one's name the livelong day

    To an admiring bog!

    --Emily Dickinson

    August 4, 2008