nothing doing

Interjection

1. (India, dated, idiomatic) Absolutely not; definitely no.
   • "I'll fix his clock all right."
     "Nothing doing. I won't have it."1917, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 11, in The Sheriff's Son
   • "[P]erhaps you might sell them a submarine or some of your diving apparatus."
     "Nothing doing, Ned. We've got other plans."1920, Victor Appleton, chapter 1, in Tom Swift And His Undersea Search
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see nothing, doing: nothing that is currently occurring; nothing going on.
   • "You see, Walter," he said, "in truth this business is merely a habit with me . . . but there's nothing doing, nothing doing. . . . I hardly know where I am myself; much less where my customers are."1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, chapter 4, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC
   • There was nothing doing in the district—no mining—no milling—no productive effort—no income—[…]1870–1871 (date written), Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXIX, in Roughing It, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company [et al.], published 1872, →OCLC, page 214

   Synonyms:

   by no means, no dice, no way, no way Jose