naught » knot

Chiefly in:   all for knot , come to knot

Classification: English – cot/caught merger

Spotted in the wild:

  • I just could not figure out how to get better. I would dry fire, practice, all for knot. (Brian Enos forum, Dec. 17, 2004)
  • They need to get another single out soon or this thread will be all for knot. (Aimee Mann message board, June 7, 2005)
  • He said India’s nuclear tests have strategically changed the situation and world community should decide as to how to cope with it. “Non-proliferation efforts have come to knot, they are shattered,” he added. (Associated Press of Pakistan, May 15, 1998)
  • If by chance, one of your ribs is yanked off your side, no matter what the doctors do to make one normal, it will all come to knot. (Mutation Workspace, Sep. 9, 2003)
  • We think that the transitional institutions will come to knot unless there is genuine reconciliation, both at the political and social levels. (Center for Research & Dialogue, Somalia, Sep. 2004)

If something comes to naught, it may end in an intractable knot.

See also naught » not.

| link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/07/21 |

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