ничего не бывало

• НИЧУТЬ <НИЧЕГО obs> НЕ БЫВАЛО coll

[sent; these forms only; fixed WO]

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⇒ (used to emphasize that sth. turned out differently than expected, presumed, described etc) absolutely not, not at all (what has been suggested, claimed etc):

- nothing of the sort (kind) (happens);

- far from it;

- that isn't (wasn't) the case (at all).

     ♦ "Теша насыпала ещё [галушек]; думает, гость наелся и будет убирать меньше. Ничего не бывало. Ещё лучше стал уплетать!" (Гоголь 5). "My mother-in-law put out some more [dumplings]; she thought the visitor had had enough and would take less. Nothing of the sort: he began gulping them down faster than ever..." (5a).

     ♦ "Всё думаешь: с завтрашнего дня начнёшь новую жизнь, с завтрашнего дня сядешь на диету - ничуть не бывало: к вечеру того же дня так объешься, что... язык не ворочается..." (Гоголь 3). "You keep thinking that from tomorrow you'll start a new life, that from tomorrow you will go on a diet, but nothing of the sort happens: on the evening of that very day you gorge yourself so much that...you can hardly utter a word" (3a).

     ♦ Я часто себя спрашиваю, зачем я так упорно добиваюсь любви молоденькой девочки, которую обольстить я не хочу и на которой никогда не женюсь?.. Если б она мне казалась непобедимой красавицей, то может быть, я бы завлёкся трудностию предприятия. Но ничуть не бывало! (Лермонтов 3). I often ask myself why it is that I so persistently seek to win the love of a young girl whom I do not wish to seduce and whom I shall never marry. ...Were she an unconquerable beauty, the difficulty of the undertaking might serve as an inducement. ...But far from it! (1b). I often wonder why I'm trying so hard to win the love of a girl I have no desire to seduce and whom I'd never marry. ...If she were some unattainable beauty I might have been attracted by the difficulty of the undertaking. But that isn't the case... (lc).