no man's land
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈnoʊˌmænzˌlænd/
Forms: form: No Man's Land
form: noman's land
form: no-man's land
Etymology: Originally from Middle English Nomanneslond, which first appears c. 1350. Revived with new senses in a dispatch printed in the Times newspaper by Colonel Ernest Dunlop Swinton writing as "Eyewitness".
Senses: topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: The ground between trenches where a soldier from either side would be easily targeted.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: A space amidships used to keep blocks, ropes, etc.; a space on a ship belonging to no one in particular for which to care.
glosses: The part of a prison, hospital complex, etc. where individuals are not normally allowed to enter.
examples: text: Today Qingshan district is a patchwork of tiny fields, polluted streams and roadside markets selling building materials. But the city government is in the process of transforming this no-man’s-land into a sparkling new suburb.
ref: 2012, Tom Miller, “The Construction Orgy: Paving the Fields”, in China's Urban Billion: The Story Behind the Biggest Migration in Human History, Zed Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 137:
text: There’s a 137-square-mile chunk of Franklin County […] referred to as "no man’s land" because it isn’t protected by any of the county’s four fire districts.
ref: 2006 March 25, Melissa Hoyos, “‘No man’s land’ has no fire protection”, in Tri City Herald:
text: Now, George, if you’re going to consider this question from the point of view of poetry, you’re off to No Man’s Land, where I won’t follow you.
ref: 1867, T W Robertson, Caste:
glosses: A place where no one can or should be present.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
tennis
glosses: The area between the backcourt and the space close to the net, from which it is difficult to return the ball.
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: An area of the field where a fielder cannot save a single, nor stop a boundary.
topics: geography
government
natural-sciences
politics
glosses: Territory that is often disputed, and that cannot be inhabited because of fear of conflict, especially:
Tracts of uninhabited territory close to the Iron Curtain.
examples: text: At the last Polish station all train officials left, except the locomotive crew, and we slowly trundled over a strongly fortified no man's land for a few hundred yards until we drew in to the first station in Russia.
ref: 1954 April, P. E. Witham, “A Trans-Siberian Memory”, in Railway Magazine, page 269, about a journey in 1937:
topics: geography
government
natural-sciences
politics
glosses: Territory that is often disputed, and that cannot be inhabited because of fear of conflict, especially:
The stretch of land between the border posts of two contiguous sovereign states, sometimes separated by great distance.
topics: geography
government
natural-sciences
politics
glosses: Territory that is often disputed, and that cannot be inhabited because of fear of conflict, especially:
Land that is not claimed by any recognized sovereign state; a terra nullius.
topics: anatomy
medicine
sciences
glosses: The fibrous sheath of the flexor tendons of the hand, specifically in the zone from the distal palmar crease to the proximal interphalangeal joint.
Hypernyms: land
Related terms: devil strip
Nomansland