nowhere
adverbadjectivenouncommon in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈnəʊ.wɛə//
- United States//ˈnoʊ.(h)wɛɹ//
In no place.
adverb
- 1
In no place.
Nowhere did the rules say anything about popcorn.
The keys are nowhere in the house.
- 2
To no place.
We sat in traffic, going nowhere.
If you forget to do this, your interlock circuit won't be made and you'll be going nowhere.
Etymology
From Middle English nowher, from Old English nōhwēr, nāhwǣr, from nā- + hwǣr. By surface analysis, 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), nowhere you want to be, etc.
adjective
- 1
Unimportant; unworthy of notice.
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.
Elinore was such a bitch, such a nowhere person.
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.
noun
- 1
No particular place, noplace.
They went on a cruise to nowhere.
While they paced the platform of the station, they reviewed the career of misdemeanours—Nutley, Chiddiugstone, Midhurst, Penn, and many nowheres, and now Aylesbury.
On a warm summer's evening On a train bound for nowhere I met up with the gambler
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.
Forms
- plural
- nowheres