nithing
Syllables: ni·thing/ˈnaɪðɪŋ/
nithing noun: a coward, a dastard; a wretch.
Noun
nithing (plural nithings)
- A coward, a dastard; a wretch.
- [W]hen there was a daungerous rebellion againſt King William Rufus and Rocheſter Caſtle then the moſt important & ſtrongeſt fort of this Realm was ſtowtly kept againſt him, after that he had but proclaimed that his ſubjects ſhould repaire thither to his Campe, vpon no other penaltie, but that...1605, M. N. [pseudonym; William Camden], “The Languages”, in Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine, […], London: […] G[eorge] E[ld] for Simon Waterson, →OCLC, page 30
- To call a Dane a nithing, was like ſetting fire to gunpowder, and inſtantly excited ſuch a flame of rage, as nothing but his own blood or the blood of the offender could extinguiſh [...].1789, Robert Henry, chapter VII, in The History of Great Britain, from the First Invasion of It by the Romans under Julius Cæsar. […], 2nd edition, Dublin: Printed for P. Byrne, […], and J. Jones...
- Synonyms:
- nidering, niddering, bottler, caitiff, candy-ass, candy-arse, coistril, coward, chicken, chicken liver
- A wicked person; also, one who has acted immorally or unlawfully.
- And for the moment, though he [Sweyn II of Denmark] escaped as usual to Baldwin [V, Count of Flanders]'s land and dwelt at Bruges, he was solemnly proclaimed a nithing or vile person (the most ignominious term in the Teutonic vocabulary) by the whole host, with the king, his brother-in-law, at...1906, Thomas Hodgkin, “Edward the Confessor. (1042–1066.)”, in The History of England: From the Earliest Times to the Norman Conquest, London; New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC...
- Synonyms:
- antimodel, bad guy, baddie, bastard, beggar, blackguard, bounder, cad, cockatrice, coistril
Adjective
nithing (comparative more nithing, superlative most nithing)
- Cowardly, dastardly.
- In Denmark, and through all the North, they provoked a man to fight a duel, by publicly calling him Niding or "infamous†:" for he who had received ſo deep a ſtain, without endeavouring to waſh it out with the blood of his adverſary, would have loſt much more than the life he was ſo deſirous to...1770, [Paul Henri] Mallet, “The Passion of the Ancient Scandinavians for Arms: Their Valour: The Manner in which They Made War. […]”, in [Thomas Percy], transl., Northern Antiquities: Or, a...
- Odo [of Bayeux] occupied the castle of Rochester, and against it William [II] led a body of English, collected by a threat that all who had remained behind should be proclaimed "nithing," or worthless.1877, J[ames] Franck Bright, “William II. 1087–1100.”, in A History of England: Period I. Mediæval Monarchy from the Departure of the Romans to Richard III. 449–1485, 2nd revised edition, London...
- Synonyms:
- nidering, niddering, backboneless, base, soft, bitch-ass, boneless, caitiff, candy-assed, chicken
- Notoriously evil or wicked; infamous.
- If a man breaks into another man's house to attack him and kill him, that shall be called a nithing crime. It is a nithing crime if a man slays one to whom he has given pledges of safety. [...] And in every case when a man is [found] guilty of a nithing crime he shall depart as an outlaw who has...1935, “[The Older Law of the Gulathing] The Law of Personal Rights”, in Laurence M[arcellus] Larson, transl., The Earliest Norwegian Laws: Being the Gulathing Law and the Frostathing Law: Translated...
Examples of nithing in a sentence
- For this siege the king again appealed to the country and called for the help of all under the old Saxon penalty of the disgraceful name of "nithing."1905, George Burton Adams, “Feudalism and a Strong King”, in William Hunt, Reginald L[ane] Poole, editors, The History of England From the...
- Do you think Jeff Jacoby is a Nazi nithing or a Holocaust denier?2010 May 21, Michael Ejercito, “Libertarianism, Federalism, and Racism [comment section]”, in Ilya Somin, The Volokh Conspiracy, archived...
- Surely there must be one among this crowd of nithings who has the guts to face a woman in combat?2014, Joanna Fulford, chapter 11, in Surrender to the Viking, Don Mills, Ont.: Harlequin Historical, →ISBN, page 139:
- If a man breaks into another man's house to attack him and kill him, that shall be called a nithing crime.1935, “[The Older Law of the Gulathing] The Law of Personal Rights”, in Laurence M[arcellus] Larson, transl., The Earliest Norwegian Laws...
Synonyms of nithing
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of nithing
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | nithings |
| alternative form | niding |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more nithing |
| superlative | most nithing |
Origin of nithing
From Middle English nithing, nithinc, nything, nythyng, nythynge, niþinge, nyþing, nyþyng, Early Middle English niðing, niþinc, niþincke (“coward, wretch; good-for-nothing; term of address for a boy or lad; stingy or miserly person; niggardly, miserly, stingy”), from Late Old English nithing, Old English niðing, nīþing (“coward; wretch; outlaw, villain”), from a North Germanic language, from Proto-Germanic *nīþą (“envy; hate; malice”) (from Proto-Indo-European *neyH- (“to be angry”)) + *-ingō, *-ungō (suffix forming gerund nouns from verbs). The English word is cognate with Danish nidding, Late Latin nidingus, nithingus, Middle High German nīdinc, nīdunc (modern German Neiding (“(archaic) one who is envious”)), Old Norse níðingr (Icelandic níðingur (“scoundrel, rascal”), Norwegian niding), Old Swedish nīþinger (modern Swedish niding).
Words formed from nithing
Questions about nithing
- What does nithing mean?
- Nithing means a coward, a dastard; a wretch.
- How do you use nithing in a sentence?
- For this siege the king again appealed to the country and called for the help of all under the old Saxon penalty of the disgraceful name of "nithing."
- What part of speech is nithing?
- Nithing can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce nithing?
- Nithing is pronounced /ˈnaɪðɪŋ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of nithing?
- The plural of nithing is nithings.
Words near nithing in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: nithing (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-nithing.oga.
Cite this entry: “nithing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nithing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.