Link Centre Dictionary

zilch

US/zɪlt͡ʃ/ uncommon archaic informal us

noun

1.

a quantity of no importance

  • “it looked like nothing I had ever seen before”
  • “reduced to nil all the work we had done”
  • “we racked up a pathetic goose egg”
  • “it was all for naught”
  • “I didn”
Synonyms

Origin

Probably from Joe Zilch, a placeholder name (compare John Doe) used by Nunnally Johnson in his column in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle from 1923; in turn from Joe Zilch, an unseen character referenced in comedian Frank Tinney's stage routine. Compare the rare German surname Zilch.

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.