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Glite Dictionary
eff all

eff all

9.9
Nothing at all, often said as a rude way to show you mean it
  • idiom
  • NSFW
translation icon : nada
  • The project ended up yielding eff all, despite all of our hard work.

Examples

  • After searching the whole house, I found eff all in my old boxes.

  • Eff all that.

    Blog text (12)

  • She tried to explain her reasoning, but it made eff all sense to him.

Synonyms

fuck all
vseff all
  • Offensive
15 9.9

A very small or no amount of something

is a euphemistic less vulgar way to say the same idea
sweet fuck all
vseff all
  • Offensive
1 9.9

A very rude way to say you have nothing at all

is similar but less forceful and used as a euphemism

Antonyms

everything
∞ 1.0

All the things or all that someone has

How Much

everything
∞ 1.0
a lot
∞ 1.0
some
∞ 1.0
a little
∞ 1.0
eff all
  • NSFW
9.9

Surface Forms

eff all singular
eff alls plural

Morphology

eff + all

The meaning 'nothing at all' is idiomatic and cannot be derived from the literal constituents: knowing 'eff' (a euphemistic spelling of the verb 'fuck') and 'all' does not transparently yield a negation meaning. This is a colloquial, euphemized idiom whose overall sense is unpredictable to a B1 learner who simply knows the component words, so it is opaque.

Etymology

Eff all comes from saying the letter eff instead of the rude phrase 'fuck all'. In that rude phrase all means 'everything', but the whole phrase really means 'nothing at all', so eff all keeps the same strong meaning while avoiding the swear.