Define the word nil"Nil" gcide "The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48"
Nil \Nil\ [See Nill, v. t.]
Will not. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
"Nil" gcide "The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48"
Nil \Nil\, n. & a. [L., a contr. of nihil.]
Nothing; of no account; worthless; -- a term often used for
canceling, in accounts or bookkeeping. --A. J. Ellis.
[1913 Webster]
"Nil" gcide "The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48"
Nil \Nil\, n. (computers)
A special value for a variable used in certain computer
languages to mean no assigned value, to be distinguished from
the value zero.
[PJC]
"nil" wn "WordNet (r) 2.0"
nil
n : 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't hear zilch about it" [syn: nothing,
nix, nada, null, aught, cipher, cypher, goose egg, naught, zero, zilch, zip]
"NIL" jargon "Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)"
NIL /nil/ No. Used in reply to a question, particularly one asked using
the `-P' convention. Most hackers assume this derives simply from LISP
terminology for `false' (see also T), but NIL as a negative reply was
well-established among radio hams decades before the advent of LISP. The
historical connection between early hackerdom and the ham radio world
was strong enough that this may have been an influence.
"nil" foldoc "The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)"
NIL
/nil/ 1. New Implementation of Lisp. A language intended to
be the successor of MacLisp. A large Lisp, implemented
mostly in VAX assembly language. A forerunner of Common LISP.
["NIL: A Perspective", Jon L. White, MACSYMA Users' Conf Proc,
1979].
2. Network Implementation Language. Strom & Yemini, TJWRC,
IBM. Implementation of complex networking protocols in a
modular fashion.
["NIL: An Integrated Language and System for Distributed
Programming", R. Strom et al, SIGPLAN Notices 18(6):73-82
(June 1983)].
3. Empty list or False. In Lisp, the empty list (or "nil
list") is used to represent the Boolean value False. This
is possible because Lisp is not typed. True is represented
by the special atom "t".
4. Spoken in reply to a question, particularly one asked using
the "-P" convention it means "No". Most hackers assume this
derives simply from LISP, but NIL meaning "no" was
well-established among radio hams decades before LISP existed.
The historical connection between early hackerdom and the ham
radio world was strong enough that this may have been an
influence.
[Jargon File]
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