Short for "no operation". This is a do-nothing command in many protocols, and in processor instruction sets. It is sometimes called NOP or noop.

Standing around doing nothing is a no-op. Doing something which turns out to be a waste of time is a no-op. "That movie was really a no-op, ne?"

Hot-and-sour soup which is neither hot nor sour is no-op soup.

NMI = N = noddy

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.

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