know-noth·ing

(nō′nŭth′ĭng)

1. A totally ignorant person; an ignoramus.

2. An anti-intellectual.

3. An agnostic.

4. Know-Nothing A member of a political party in the United States during the 1850s that was antagonistic toward recent immigrants and Roman Catholics.

know′-noth′ing·ism n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

know-nothing

informal derogatory an ignorant person

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

know′-noth`ing

1. an ignorant or totally uninformed person; ignoramus.

2. (caps.) a member of a U.S. political party of the 1850s, whose aim was to exclude Catholics and the foreign-born from political participation: so called because members professed ignorance of the party's activities.

3. an agnostic.

[1815–25]

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References in periodicals archive

Paul Krugman | NYT News Service THESE days calling someone a 'know-nothing' could mean one of two things.

Know-Nothings For The 21st Century

A changed attitude toward immigrants began only with the rise of a young man from Illinois in the infant Republican Party He wrote his friend: "Dear Speed: I am not a Know-Nothing. ...

Growing opposition

German settlers were among the first to reach North America, but that did not stop the Know-Nothing Party of the 1850s from opposing further immigration to the U.S.

Americans have met Trump, and he is them

But even that is small potatoes when compared with what happened in 1854, when the Know-Nothing movement came out of nowhere to sweep the nation, driving the Whig Party to extinction and badly crippling the Democratic Party.

Know-Nothing sweep of 1854

YET again a know-nothing, Steve Cohen, has found it necessary to comment on Hillsborough.

Empty apology; YouSay Email:letters@liverpoolecho.co.uk

Corporate back-stabbers, know-nothing managers, bad communicators, bullies, idiots and other managers from Hell are no match for the savvy advice on these pages.

A Survival Guide for Working with Bad Bosses

Similarly, in 1855 the staunchly anti-Catholic American Party, popularly called the Know-Nothing Party, found itself winning the governorship in Louisiana with a Catholic candidate.

Fusion power: why only two parties is no fun

If this pathetic confederacy of know-nothing dunces are in any way representative of the average product of the school system, then we're in big trouble.

Elementary, my dear Jade - your education, that is; THE ANTI-BIG BROTHER PAPER

The nativists of the Know-Nothing movement appear simply as a malign force hostile to the Germans.

The Spirit of 1848: German Immigrants, Labor Conflict, and the Coming of the Civil War

Since Brimelow is not a historian, he may not be familiar with Section 1, Article Ill, of the Know-Nothing constitution: "The object of this organization shall be to resist the insidious policy of the church of Rome, and other foreign influence against the institutions of our country by placing in all offices in the gift of the people, or by appointment, none but native-born Protestant citizens."

Alien Nation

In an 1855 letter to his friend Joshua Speed, Lincoln stressed his contempt for the anti- immigrant Know-Nothing Party on grounds that make this clear.

The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America

Just substitute "Irish" or "Italian" for "Latino." While his dour vision may provide a call to action for similarly hoary policymakers in Congress, what it most clearly indicates is that Huntington and his ilk are mostly know-nothings about reality on the streets of the United States.

This land is my land: no Latinos need apply to this internal clash of civilizations