nothing if not
Certainly; definitely; (sometimes also obliquely) thoroughly; wholly; to a high degree; extremely.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“He is nothing if not persistent.”
“The politician is nothing if not ambitious, as she has already started planning her next campaign.”
“The professor was nothing if not thorough, spending hours correcting every minor error in our lengthy research papers.”
The phrase asserts the truth of a statement by the literal claim that the alternative is void. The construction functions as a formal insistence, suggesting that if the quality in question were absent, nothing of the subject would remain.
- 01
come to nothing
To fail completely; to have no result.
- 02
dance on nothing
To be hanged.
- 03
here goes nothing
Indicates a lack of confidence or certainty about the activity about to be tried.
- 04
hiding to nothing
A situation in which victory has little or no value, but defeat has a huge cost.
- 05
if nothing else
At the very least; as a minimum.
- 06
much ado about nothing
A lot of fuss or bother about something trivial.
- 07
nothing doing
Absolutely not; definitely no.
- 08
nothing for it
No alternative; nothing else to be done or to have recourse to.
Last updated August 10, 2026