= N =
no-op /noh'op/ n.,v.
alt. NOP /nop/ [no
operation] 1. A machine instruction that does nothing (sometimes
used in assembler-level programming as filler for data or patch
areas, or to overwrite code to be removed in binaries). 2. A
person who contributes nothing to a project, or has nothing going
on upstairs, or both. As in "He's a no-op." 3. Any operation or
sequence of operations with no effect, such as circling the block
without finding a parking space, or putting money into a vending
machine and having it fall immediately into the coin-return box, or
asking someone for help and being told to go away. "Oh, well,
that was a no-op." Hot-and-sour soup (see great-wall) that
is insufficiently either is `no-op soup'; so is wonton soup if
everybody else is having hot-and-sour.
--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.