Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - nonsense

1. If you say that something spoken or written is nonsense, you mean that you consider it to be untrue or silly. Most orthodox doctors however dismiss this as complete nonsense. ...all that poetic nonsense about love... ‘I’m putting on weight.’—‘Nonsense my dear.’ = rubbish N-UNCOUNT c darkgreen]disapproval 2. You can use nonsense to refer to something that you think is foolish or that you disapprove of. Surely it is an economic nonsense to deplete the world of natural resources... I think there is a limit to how much of this nonsense people are going to put up with. N-UNCOUNT: also a N, usu supp N c darkgreen]disapproval 3. You can refer to spoken or written words that do not mean anything because they do not make sense as nonsense. ...a children’s nonsense poem by Charles E Carryl. N-UNCOUNT 4. see also no-nonsense 5. To make a nonsense of something or to make nonsense of it means to make it seem ridiculous or pointless. The fighting made a nonsense of peace pledges made in London last week... PHRASE: V inflects, PHR n