nevermind

Formsneverminds, neverminding, neverminded

1. 1
   verbcolloquialmisspelling

   Misspelling of never mind.

   Can you pass me the... nevermind, I've got it.

   He can't boil an egg, nevermind cook a whole dinner.

   Note

   Edited writing keeps the phrase as two words: never mind the mess; never mind, I found it; he can't boil an egg, never mind cook dinner. Casual writing often closes it up, and some published prose does too, as in Nina Revoyr's Southland (2003). The one-word spelling belongs properly to the regional words, such as none of your nevermind.

2. 2
   noundialectalUSuncountable

   Real difference or consequence; a significant effect on a situation or state of affairs.

   Whether he shows up at the meeting or not won't make any nevermind to the vote.

   Paying the loan off early didn't make a heap of nevermind to the bank.

   Similardifference

   Note

   The frame is fixed: something makes no nevermind, any nevermind or a heap of nevermind to someone, much as it makes no difference. It often keeps company with a double negative, as in doesn't mean no nevermind to me, so it suits dialogue rather than formal prose. Lester Cohen's Sweepings already has it in 1926.

3. 3
   noundialectalUSuncountable

   Attention or heed paid to someone or something.

   Folks around here never paid much nevermind to the county's rules.

   She went on talking, paying no nevermind to the rain dripping through the roof.

   Similarattention, heed, mind

   Note

   Regional American speech turned the phrase never mind into a noun, and here it follows pay the way attention does: pay no nevermind, don't pay him any nevermind. William Walling's It's Too Late to Leave Early (2002) asks whether people with guidelines coming out the kazoo pay any nevermind to them. Outside that voice, pay no attention is the safe choice.

4. 4
   noundialectalUSuncountable

   A matter that is a person's own concern or business.

   "Who I marry ain't any nevermind of yours," she snapped.

   The sheriff figured the feud was no nevermind of his and rode on.

   Similarbusiness, concern, affair

   Note

   Its home is the brush-off: none of your nevermind, not that it's any nevermind of yours, the folksy cousin of none of your business. A. B. Guthrie Jr. puts it in a speaker's mouth in The Way West (1949), and Gary Franklin's Blood at Bear Lake (2008) still uses it the same way, to put a character in their place.

5. 5
   verbdialectalUStransitive

   To ignore someone or something, paying it no attention.

   Drivers up the valley nevermind the speed limit on that road.

   She just kept neverminding the phone until it stopped ringing.

   Similarignore, disregard

   Oppositeheed

   Note

   Unlike the two-word never mind, this verb takes ordinary endings (neverminds, neverminding, neverminded) and works like ignore, with an object or without one, as in Chris Lynch's Freewill (2002): "Let's nevermind, huh?" Keep it to regional speech; in edited prose the one-word form is easily taken for a misspelling of never mind.

Showing meanings only. Show all 5