What does "not for nothing" mean?

“Never”

But now that I see the response from @wundayatta… I have to say that it depends on context.

“Not for nothing would I ever hurt you,” means “I would never hurt you”, “there is no offer that could induce me to hurt you”

“Are you free to work this weekend?” answered “Not for nothing,” means “if the money is right.”

Funny, that. It can mean opposites, apparently. (But I think my choice is the more common usage.)

It means I don’t work (or do things) for nothing.

“It’s not for nothing that I clean all these windows.”

The implication is that an otherwise altruistic act is actually being paid for in another way.

@wundayatta So then it’s like “you owe me”?

cliche meaning, “i wouldn’t hurt you for nuttin!”

I always thought it meant something like “There is a reason for this”.

for something.

@papayalily well, I suppose it could be. Depends on the context it is made in. But I wouldn’t think it normally means that. It’s not for nothing that you do whatever, but it doesn’t really imply that whoever you did it for owes you.

For example, if I say it’s not for nothing that I host these political house meetings, I don’t mean the people who come owe me. I mean that I expect to build a new network of contacts by doing it. Maybe in the future those contacts will make me a payday.

@papayalily Essentially you are correct in saying it parses to “for something.” That doesn’t mean payment necessarily; it means “There is a reason for [the rest of the sentence]”. “It’s not for nothing that I clean these windows” could mean I get paid, I like shiny windows or it makes me feel safe from peeping Toms.

It’s a parallel expression to “not without reason.” It’s not a double negative but rather a literary idiom that denies an implied or presumed denial. “It was not for nothing that we marched all night and day to gain the element of surprise on the enemy” means that there was a compelling reason and a payoff. It wasn’t trivial, it wasn’t idle, it wasn’t pointless.

If you could say of a failed effort “It looks like we came all this way for nothing” or “I guess we got all dressed up for nothing,” well, this is the opposite.

I’ve always heard it as an interjection meaning, “here’s my opinion” or “no offense, but…”
A little passive-aggressive, Jersey Shore style way of bringing in a differing point of view.

It’s a colloquial New Jersey expression that means…listen up…the next thing coming out of my mouth is important but you can disregard it out of hand if you like. Not for nothing but…and then you make your point.
Now yous can forged about it! No those aren’t spelling errors. That’s how they talk in Jersey!

Since you only ‘heard’ this spoken, let me suggest an alternative to the written “not for nothing”. It’s just possible that what you heard could be ”naught for nothing”, or even ”naught, for nothing”.

“Naught for nothing” would suggest an equal trade of “nothing for nothing”, and “naught, for nothing” would be an intensifier: “All of our good efforts to resolve this are naught, for nothing.”

I think I actually heard something like this in a BBC production some time ago, and I liked it.

@CyanoticWasp I really like that explanation! You’ve made nonsense into sense for me now.
@Joybird That’s exactly what I meant.

I don’t know anything about it as Jersey slang. My explanation applies to literary uses and seems to be off target for this question.

It would mean: there is an estimation of a price involved.

‘not for nothing’ is a double negative
which produces a positive
= for something
Damn, you yanks done a great job in bastardising the English Language.

It depends on where it’s heard.

“You yanks,” @Odysseus? “Bastardising”?

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Not for nothing did Europe display its hinder parts to the Universe during its awful years. … Not for nothing did we promise all sorts of things to our coloured allies as a reward for fidelity.”

—Sir James Currie, K.B.E., C.M.G. ’Present-Day Difficulties of a Young Officer in the Tropics,’ 1933

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Not for nothing did we read the theologians
and studied the rhetoricians not in vain,
for every word we have a definition
and can interpret all things seven different ways.
In your body I can locate the four virtues,
and, needless to say, the seven sins;
but of all words one is changeless:
when, gazing deep into your grey eyes,
I say, “I love you”—the most ingenious rhetorician
will understand only, “I love you”—nothing more.

—Mikhail Alekseevich Kuzmin (1872–1936), Selected Writings

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Not for nothing did we request an extension of the transitional period to which we are entitled under the Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures, with a view to preserving one of the key instruments of our agro-industrial policy for an additional period of time.”

—Statement by H. E. Mrs Marta Lucia Ramirez de Rincón, Minister of Foreign Trade, Colombia; World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference, November 2001

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“Literary,” I said. (And very British.)

Shall I go on?

You go, girl. w00t