Green’s Dictionary of Slang

absolutely not, not a hope, not a chance; thus anton. something doing.

1827		De Quincey in Blackwood’s Mag. Feb. 211/2: Old bedridden connoisseurs, who had got into a peevish way of sneering and complaining ‘that there was nothing doing’ .
1881		N.Z. Observer (Auckland) 15 Jan. 168/4: Each night their report has been the same - ‘Nothing doing, poitively nothing doing’.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 July 18/1: The public find the money, and, according to all accounts, the public is hard-up. Trade is dull, it is impossible to get money in, there is nothing doing in business, and yet when there comes a boat-race thousands of people travel miles and pay pounds and half-sovereigns on the steamers to see it.
1900		Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 39: I live here, an’ you know well enough that where I live there’s nothin’ doin’.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 28 Sept. 6/3: [B]oth men sparred and dodged about; but there was nothing doing.
1906		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Coming-Out of Maggie’ in Four Million (1915) 80: I knew there’d be nothin’ doin’ for him if he came as a Dago.
1911		B. Fisher Mutt & Jeff 18 Jan. [synd. strip] I’ll go down and say ‘Nothing doin’’ on the rent.
1915		Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 195: ‘Nuttin’ doing,’ says I.
1919		Truth (Brisbane) 11 May 6/6: The ‘man’ made a suggestion to Mrs. Wiltshire, whose slang retort indicated that there could be ‘nothing doing’.
1922		M.E. Smith Adventures of a Boomer Op. 13: If I relieved every one of you fellows [...] we would have to run a special train to take care of you, so ‘Nothin’ Doin’’.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 140: Something doing, boys. Listen to what the Hep Bird twitters.
1927		H.C. Witwer Classics in Sl. 57: She wakes up Mac and tells him he’s got to do the dirty work. K. O. Macbeth says nothin’ stirrin’!
1930		‘Leslie Charteris’ Enter the Saint 80: ‘If we phone the police —’ ‘Nothing doing!’.
1938		R. Chandler ‘The King in Yellow’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 54Nothing doing in that direction now, sister.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 142: Nothing doing. Got a yodeller. Tell him to get back to his bullock-punching.
1950		‘Hal Ellson’ Tomboy (1952) 41: Nothing doing [...] We’re not being friendly with them [i.e. another gang] not unless we settle the score.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 257: There was nothing doing there while Pat had the dead wood on Jimmy Brockett.
1960		‘Nino Culotta’ Cop This Lot 186: ‘Nothin’ doin’, eh?’ ‘Nothin’ doin’ about wot?’ ‘Thought ut mighta been on.’.
1978		L.K. Truscott IV Dress Gray (1979) 401: ‘Nothing doing,’ she said.
1980		A. Pearl Dict. Popular Sl.