nowhere
English
Etymology
From Middle English nowher, from Old English nōhwēr, nāhwǣr, from nā- + hwǣr, equivalent to no + where.
Adjective usage is taken from phrases like nowhere on the map, signifying the location was too small or too insignificant to be listed, and nowhere you want to be.
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈnoʊ.(h)wɛɹ/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈnəʊ.wɛə/
Audio (US) (file) - Hyphenation: no‧where
Adverb
nowhere (not comparable)
- In no place.
- Nowhere did the rules say anything about popcorn.
- To no place.
- We sat in traffic, going nowhere.
Translations
in no place
|
to no place
|
Adjective
nowhere (not comparable)
- Unimportant; unworthy of notice.
- 1872, “Reviews of Postal Publications”, in The Stamp-Collector's Magazine, volume 10, page 110:
- As a foreign stamp gazette it is nowhere. An article on Stamp Collecting, by J. E. Gray, “reprinted from one of his books,” and a catalogue of stamps constitute its sole attraction. We are surprised to find such sounding pretentions so poorly supported.
- 2008, Cricket Sawyer, Lavender Lust, →ISBN, page 180:
- Elinore was such a bitch, such a nowhere person.
- 2012, Nicholas Borelli, Let No Man Be My Albatross, →ISBN, page 247:
- He always allowed them to motivate him to a level of intensity to do better, rather than remain in a nowhere life in a nowhere place like Harlem.
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Antonyms
- everywhere
Derived terms
- nowhere dense
- nowhere dense set
Noun
nowhere (plural nowheres)
- No particular place, noplace.
- They went on a cruise to nowhere.
- 1912, Charles Inge, “Nemesis or Bad Luck?”, in The Windsor magazine, volume 36, page 95:
- While they paced the platform of the station, they reviewed the career of misdemeanours—Nutley, Chiddiugstone, Midhurst, Penn, and many nowheres, and now Aylesbury.
- 1976, Don Schlitz (lyrics), “The Gambler”:
- On a warm summer's evening On a train bound for nowhere I met up with the gambler
- 1996 Oct, Indianapolis Monthly, volume 20, number 2, page 115:
- Oh, not the middle of nowhere like the rest of Indiana, but a nowhere so flat and ugly you want to lie down in a ditch and never get up again.
- 2005, Dave Finkelstein; Jack London, Philip Caputo, Greater Nowheres: Wanderings Across the Outback, page xxiv:
- But some Nowheres do still exist and are there to be found by any genuinely free spirit willing to hook a caravan behind his four-wheel-drive and dream, say, of finding that isolated campsite beside an as yet undiscovered waterhole
Derived terms
- all dressed up and nowhere to go
- middle of nowhere
- Nowheresville
- nowhere income
- nowhere near
- out of nowhere
Related terms
- anywhere, anyplace
- everywhere, everyplace
- somewhere, someplace
- nobody, no one
- nothing
See also
- Thesaurus:quantifier
Anagrams
- whereon