middle of nowhere

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

middle of nowhere (plural middles of nowhere)

1. (idiomatic) A very remote or secluded area; a nondescript place lacking population, interesting things, or defining characteristics.
   • 1889 Nov. 2, "The Proof" (editorial), The Daily Record (Kansas, USA), p. 2 (retrieved 12 April 2013):

     We set out to demonstrate to the people of the county that a corrupt ring managed the Republican party in this county. . . . We want that corrupt ring knocked into the middle of Nowhere.

   • 1920, Margaret Pedler, chapter 29, in The Hermit of Far End:

     "Only we don't happen to be in the middle of nowhere! We're just about a couple of miles from a market town where abides a nice little inn whence petrol can be obtained."

   • 1950 May, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Tanganyika Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 297:

     The train occasionally stops when it crosses a stream in the middle of nowhere to take on water.

   • 1977 October 17, “Now, the Poor Man's Jumbo Jet”, in Time:

     South Florida's Everglades Jetport is a fancy name for a concrete runway in the middle of nowhere.

   • 1997, Bob Dylan (lyrics and music), “Tryin' to Get to Heaven”, in Time Out of Mind:

     I've been walking through the middle of nowhere / Trying to get to heaven before they close the door

   • 2012 May 9, Bettina Wassener, “A Modern Magellan Demonstrates Power of the Sun”, in New York Times, retrieved 12 April 2013:

     [A]fter weeks of journeying across the monotonous open sea. . . . “You see nothing for 30 days — you’re in the middle of nowhere, you feel like you are in outer space,” said Mr. Domjan.

   • 2021 July 23, Ryan Trahan, 0:12 from the start, in Overnight in an Abandoned Ghost Town‎:

     In the 1800s, tons of Americans migrated all over in search of one thing: money. Towns just started popping up in the middles of nowhere to mine for gold.

   • 2022 November 16, Paul Bigland, “From rural branches to high-speed arteries”, in RAIL, number 970, page 56:

     It feels strange to be crossing the site of the old Ripple Lane locomotive depot and freight yards on a new viaduct, to arrive in what used to be the middle of nowhere but which is now a growing new development.

• Almost always in the singular, preceded by the.

• See: Thesaurus:remote place
• backwater, backwoods, boondocks, the sticks, Timbuktu

• bumfuck middle of nowhere