The Collaborative International Dictionary
Know-nothing \Know"-noth`ing\, n. A member of a secret political organization in the United States, the chief objects of which were the proscription of foreigners by the repeal of the naturalization laws, and the exclusive choice of native Americans for office.
Note: The party originated in 1853, and existed for about three years. The members of it were called Know-nothings, because they replied ``I don't know,'' to any questions asked them in reference to the party.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"ignoramus," 1827, from know + nothing. As a U.S. nativist political party, active 1853-56, the name refers to the secret society at the core of the party, about which members were instructed to answer, if asked about it, that they "know nothing." The party eventually merged into the Republican Party.
Usage examples of "know-nothing".
A secret organization called Americans, or Know-Nothings, swept the Commonwealth like a wave, electing all the State officers, and, with scarcely an exception, the entire Legislature.
Which he would have done, if the damned FreeSoilers among the Know-Nothings had not bolted to the Republican candidate, Fremont, thereby electing Buck and Breck.
A few days after I was there, Richardson, as I understood, started this same story about my having been in a Know-Nothing lodge.
Gary was like Barry, like Barry Self: a lantern-jawed know-nothing, an unreflecting hedonist, a mastermould of brute conceit who none the less exploits a small but tenacious legacy of charm and luck.
Ripon, Wisconsin, in February 1854, a diverse coalition of antislavery politicians, former members of the Whig, Free-Soil, and Know-Nothing parties along with disaffected northern Democrats, organized a new party opposed to the further extension of slavery.
America was going to make an ass of itself in the eyes of the world if it engaged in a know-nothing persecution of science, and they had begun to make some headway when Strabismus and a score of his associates launched a frontal assault, charging the professors with being atheistic humanists and Communists.
Which he would have done, if the damned FreeSoilers among the Know-Nothings had not bolted to the Republican candidate, Fremont, thereby electing Buck and Breck.
So a man does something in support of that guarantee, and a bunch of know-nothings and professional patriots do a job on him.
A squalid, know-nothing acceptance of things as they are, an operatic version of the dream which, in North America, means Mom and apple pie.
Maybe America's hog-tied six ways from Sunday thanks to the Know-nothings letting the We-know-what's-best-for-everyone types have their wicked way with our laws and our lives, but this is still a democracy.
No low-level know-nothing bureaucrat can weed you off a transfer list on the grounds that you couldn’.