an area between opposing armies, over which no control has been established.
an unowned or unclaimed tract of usually barren land.
an indefinite or ambiguous area where guidelines and authority are not clear.
a no man's land between acceptance and rejection.
(in tennis, handball, etc.) the area of a court in which a player is at a tactical disadvantage, as the area of a tennis court about midway between the net and the base line.
land between boundaries, esp an unoccupied zone between opposing forces
an unowned or unclaimed piece of land
an ambiguous area of activity or thought
Middle English word dating back to 1300–50
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But enforcement of these laws has long occupied an unusual no-man’s-land in this country, scrambling the standard political lines around criminal justice.
From Salon • Jun. 2, 2026
This map shows the hundreds of ships huddling at either end of the strait, which has become a no-man’s-land.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 14, 2026
Soon the Ziwaris would be on the brink of a more terrifying leg of the journey: the no-man’s-land between Colombia and Panama.
From Reuters • Feb. 1, 2023
In the ninth, Mets star Francisco Lindor was caught in no-man’s-land on the bases and thrown out.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 18, 2022
He bought them some furniture and gave them some money until José Arcadio recovered his sense of reality and began to work the no-man’s-land that bordered the courtyard of the house.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
