nothing for it

nothing for it

English

Alternative forms

• nothing else for it

Noun

nothing for it (uncountable)

1. (idiomatic, often followed by but) No alternative; nothing else to be done or to have recourse to.
   • 1815, Sir Walter Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. 21:

     "You will allow there was nothing for it after this but paying honest Joe Hodges's bill and departing."

   • 1853, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, ch. 5:

     I (whatever the others might do) saw nothing for it but to comply.

   • 1915, James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, ch. 5:

     I missed the train home and I couldn't get any kind of a yoke to give me a lift. . . . So there was nothing for it only to stay the night or to foot it out.

   • 2010 June 25, Carolyn See, "Book World: Vendela Vida's The Lovers," Washington Post (retrieved 5 May 2015):

     There's nothing for it but to go forward, whether we know where we're going or not.

Further reading

• nothing for it at OneLook Dictionary Search