nonsensenoun/ˈnɒn.səns/

• 1

  Letters or words, in writing or speech, that have no meaning or pattern or seem to have no meaning.

  • After my father had a stroke, every time he tried to talk, it sounded like nonsense.
• 2

  An untrue statement.

  • You have seen it for yourselves in the play by Aristophanes, where Socrates goes whirling round, proclaiming that he is walking on air, and uttering a great deal of other nonsense about things of which I know nothing whatsoever.
  • While at the hospital, David kept screaming and yelling nonsense, stating Vladimir Putin bailed him out of jail and is a god.
• 3

  That which is silly, illogical and lacks any meaning, reason or value; that which does not make sense.

• 4

  Something foolish.

  • and central banks lend vast sums against marshmallow backed securities, or other nonsenses creative bankers dreamed up.
• 5

  literaturemediapublishingA type of poetry that contains strange or surreal ideas, as, for example, that written by Edward Lear.

• 6

  biologynatural-sciencesA damaged DNA sequence whose products are not biologically active, that is, that does nothing.

nonsenseverb/ˈnɒn.səns/

• 1

  To make nonsense of;

  • At the Haymarket all this is nonsensed by an endeavor to steer between Mr. Stanley Weyman's rights as author of the story and the prescriptive right of the leading actor to fight popularly and heroically against heavy odds.
• 2

  To attempt to dismiss as nonsense; to ignore or belittle the significance of something; to render unimportant or puny.

  • "They haven't nonsensed these workouts. They've taken them and used them very well. I didn't know how they'd respond, but they've responded."
  • Very commanding: very much 'end of this nonsensing'. Mister Fared spread his hands and shook his thin head imperceptibly, as if to say he understood.
• 3

  To joke around, to waste time

  • When he meant "go and get one" he said to go and get one, with no nonsensing around about "liking" to get one.

nonsenseadj/ˈnɒn.səns/

• 1

  Nonsensical.

• 2

  biochemistrybiologychemistryResulting from the substitution of a nucleotide in a sense codon, causing it to become a stop codon (not coding for an amino-acid).

nonsenseintj/ˈnɒn.səns/

• 1

  An emphatic rejection of something one has just heard and does not believe or agree with.

  • The operators present this as a passenger benefit by claiming it provides early notice. Nonsense! This just means that passengers can't find any information about the train they thought they were catching. It simply disappears.