no man's land

noun

1. an area between opposing armies, over which no control has been established.
2. an unowned or unclaimed tract of usually barren land.
3. an indefinite or ambiguous area where guidelines and authority are not clear:

   a no man's land between acceptance and rejection.

4. (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.

no-man's-land

noun

1. land between boundaries, esp an unoccupied zone between opposing forces
2. an unowned or unclaimed piece of land
3. an ambiguous area of activity or thought

Word History and Origins

Origin of no man's land¹

Middle English word dating back to 1300–50

Example Sentences

Meanwhile, thousands of Israeli airstrikes reaching deep into Lebanon, along with extensive evacuation warnings from the Israeli military, have left wide swaths of the country a no-man’s-land.

From Los Angeles Times

He was then exiled in 1992 to a no-man's-land between Israel and Lebanon, along with a number of Hamas leaders.

From BBC

Benjamin Gilmer wrote that he unsuccessfully petitioned every Virginia public mental health hospital, as well as appropriate public mental health facilities in North Carolina, “but they required that Vince first be in a Virginia hospital for a state-to-state transfer. Vince was stuck in a bizarre no-man’s-land,” he wrote.

From Seattle Times

To reach Ukraine, the pensioners had to drag their bags across a two-kilometre stretch of no-man's-land.

From BBC

In a rare display of unity, he and President Nikos Christodoulides, the Greek Cypriot leader, met in no-man’s-land dividing the Cypriot capital Nicosia on Friday.

From Reuters

Related Words

• back country
• desert
• forest
• jungle
• outback
• wasteland