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.
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