NO BATTLE, phr. (printers’).—No good; not worth while.
NO CHICKEN, phr. (common).—Getting on in years: usually of women.
1889. DRAGE, Cyril, iv. I don’t think that Miss Vera is ANY CHICKEN.
NO END, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Extremely; a great many. A general intensive.
1861. T. HUGHES, Tom Brown at Oxford, xiii. (1864), 141. The black and yellow seems to slip along so fast. They’re NO END of good colours. I wish our new boat was black.
1863. C. READE, Hard Cash, I. 325. They drifted past a revenue cutter, who was lying to with her head to the northward. She hoisted NO END of signals, but they understood none of them.
1876. J. GRANT, One of the Six Hundred, xiv. We were beset by London Jews and army contractors, and I had, as the phrase goes, ‘NO END’ of unsuspected things to provide.
NO FEAR. See FEAR.
NO-FLIES, adv. (printers’).—Artful; designing. Also N.F. (q.v.).
NO FOOL, adv. phr. (common).—An ironical intensive: cf. NO SLOUCH.
1888. BOLDREWOOD, Robbery under Arms, xix. It was thirty feet high—NO FOOL of a drop.
NO GO, adv. phr. (common).—No use; impossible. Fr. zut! and ça ne mord pas.
1830. W. T. MONCRIEFF, The Heart of London, i. 1. I’m much obliged to you: it’s NO GO.
1836. MARRYAT, Mr. Midshipman Easy, xix. 113. ‘But its NO GO with old Smallsole, if I want a bit of caulk.’
1848. RUXTON, Life in the Far West, 146. Outside is NO GO.
1852. Notes and Queries, 17 Jan., Ser. 1. v. 55. My publisher coolly answered that it was NO GO.
1871. Daily News, 17 April, p. 2, col. 2. How many beyond those mentioned in the foregoing remarks have been backed in earnest, I should not like to say; and it strikes me that it is a case of NO GO with Autocrat, Sarsfield….
1893. P. H. EMERSON, Signor Lippo, viii. Well, I tried to get some banjo pupils—NO GO; no testimonials.
1896. FARJEON, The Betrayal of John Fordham, III., 281. But it wos NO GO; them as gathered round wouldn’t part.
NO KID, adv. phr. (common).—No mistake.
1893. P. H. EMERSON, Signor Lippo, xx. I was knocked silly and taken to the same ’orspital, and when I woke I was in bed, my boko all plastered up like a broken arm, and a gal in a white hat and blue dress a-waiting on me—a real lady, NO KID.
NO MOSS, phr. (tailors’).—No animosity.
NO NAME, NO PULL, phr. (tailors’).—If I name no names there can be no libel = if I do not mention his name he cannot take offence, unless he likes to apply the remarks to himself.
NO ODDS, adv. phr. (colloquial).—No matter; of no consequence.
1855. DICKENS, Little Dorrit, I. ch. xix. ‘How vexatious, Chivery?’ asked the benignant father. ‘NO ODDS,’ returned Mr. Chivery. ‘Never mind.’
NO REPAIRS. See REPAIRS.
