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never-never land

 
Dictionary: nev·er-nev·er land   (nĕv'ər-nĕv'ər)
n.
An imaginary and wonderful place; a fantasy land.

[After Never-Never Land, fictional setting used in the play Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie.]


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Idioms: never-never land
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A fantasy land, an imaginary place, as in I don't know what's gotten into Marge--she's way off in never-never land. This expression gained currency when James Barrie used it in Peter Pan (1904) for the place where Peter and the Lost Boys live. However, in the second half of the 1800s Australians already were using it for vast unsettled areas of their continent ( the outback), and there the term became popular through Mrs. Aeneas Gunn's We of the Never Never (1908). In Australia it still refers to northwest Queensland or northern Australia in general. Elsewhere it simply signifies a fantasy or daydream.


WordNet: never-never land
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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a pleasing country existing only in dreams or imagination
  Synonyms: dreamland, dreamworld


Best of the Web: never-never land
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Some good "never-never land" pages on the web:


Phrase
www.phrases.org.uk
 
 
 

 

Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Idioms. The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more

 

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