I. ˈnänˌsen(t)s, -_sən- noun
1.
a. : something that is not sense or has no sense : words or language having no meaning or conveying no intelligible ideas
apples harvest — the words are now nonsense ; they have lost their grammar — Charlton Laird
b. : something written or said that is absurd or contrary to good sense : twaddle , drivel
a lot of nonsense has been uttered — R.A.Lester
no throaty oratorical nonsense was there — W.A.White
c.
(1) : conduct or a course of action that is absurd or contrary to good sense : a piece of absurdity
this, of course, makes nonsense of the liberation policy — New Statesman & Nation
this attitude is, manifestly, nonsense — Allan Sangster
the nonsense that the ragged rebels spoke of as their War for Independence — F.V.W.Mason
(2) : an instance of nonsensical action
if this did happen to be just a nonsense — Nigel Balchin
dispelling his many nonsenses — American Anthropologist
d. : a concrete object whose acceptance or use is contrary to good sense
an Eskimo cloak makes perfect sense in the Arctic regions, though it … is nonsense in Guayaquil — Gustave Weigel
never pay any attention to the nonsense of omens — George Meredith
2.
a. : things of no importance or value : trifles, folderol , frills
the raincoats are classic, without any nonsense — New Yorker
b. : foolish, affected, impudent or frivolous conduct or manner : fooling, humbug
the Indians of those regions would stand no nonsense — S.E.Morison & H.S.Commager
were taught to recite poetry when asked and no nonsense — Katherine A. Porter
a brisk old lady with no nonsense about her — Jean Stafford
II. adjective
1. archaic : nonsensical
2.
a. : being a verse (as ibbety, bibbety, sibbety, sab ) consisting of words or syllables arranged primarily with regard to meter and not to sense
b. : being a poem or other literary composition of humorous or whimsical character typically with odd, grotesque, or anomalous themes, characters, and actions and often marked by the use of words coined for the purpose that sometimes have an evocative character but no precise or generally accepted meaning
limericks and other types of nonsense poetry
3. : being a simulated unit of speech (as a word or syllable) fabricated by arbitrary grouping of speech sounds or symbols and pronounced to provide a test as of ability to apprehend speech sounds or word or syllable boundaries
ˈshkrȯgˌthyəmpth is a nonsense word
a linguistic response like the nonsense syllable provides … a highly differentiable but easily recognizable response — J.B.Carroll
III. noun
: genetic information consisting of one or more codons that do not code for any amino acids and usually cause termination of the molecular chain in protein synthesis — compare antisense herein missense herein
IV. adjective
: consisting of one or more codons that are genetic nonsense