Word.ws English Dictionary

not on

not on phrase: unacceptable or impossible.

Phrase

not on

  1. (Australia, Ireland, UK, informal) Unacceptable or impossible.
    • It's just not on. We can't go breaking into another lawyer's office. I mean . . . it's just not something you can do.1998, James P. Hogan, chapter 24, in Bug Park
    • A feature of a situation may be influencing us although we do not realize it. From the agent's point of view the motivational power and direction of a consideration may not even be recognized. We often do not know why certain choices are just not on, and others so strangely attractive.1998, Simon Blackburn, Ruling Passions: A Theory of Practical Reasoning, page 124

Questions about not on

What does not on mean?
Not on means unacceptable or impossible.
What part of speech is not on?
Not on is a phrase.

Words near not on in the dictionary

  1. not much of anything
  2. not much to look at
  3. not my Nigel
  4. not necessarily
  5. not of
  6. not on
  7. not on any account
  8. not on your life
  9. not on your nellie
  10. not on your nelly
  11. not on your tintype

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: not on (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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Cite this entry: “not on.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/not_on. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.