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know-nothing

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Know-Nothing¹

Where it comes from

Party members claimed to know nothing about the party when questioned.

noun Know-Nothings

  1. US, historical A member of a secret antiforeigner political organization in the nineteenth-century United States. The legacy of the Know-Nothings lived beyond its life as an organization. The seeds of bigotry, fear and hatred bore fruit again in the years after the Civil War.[…] The First World War led to another outbreak of nativism. A new group, adopting the program of the Know-Nothings and the name of the Ku

know-nothing²

Where it comes from

Essentially deverbal in nature, albeit not from a unitary phrasal verb. Compare do-nothing § Etymology.

adjective

  1. not comparable Ignorant; characterized by foolish denial of facts or beliefs in that which is not true. All over the world, know-nothing xenophobes are claiming – without evidence – that climate science is rigged.

noun know-nothings

  1. An ignorant person; one who lacks knowledge.

    Similar: ignoramus

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MLA

"know-nothing." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/know-nothing. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

know-nothing. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/know-nothing

Chicago

"know-nothing." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/know-nothing.

BibTeX
@misc{know_nothing_2026,
  title = {know-nothing},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/know-nothing},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}