Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - nowhere

Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. You use nowhere to emphasize that a place has more of a particular quality than any other places, or that it is the only place where something happens or exists. Nowhere is language a more serious issue than in Hawaii... This kind of forest exists nowhere else in the world... If you are extremely rich, you could stay nowhere better than the Ruislip Court Hotel. ADV: ADV with be, ADV after v, oft ADV cl/group c darkgreen]emphasis 2. You use nowhere when making negative statements to say that a suitable place of the specified kind does not exist. There was nowhere to hide and nowhere to run... I have nowhere else to go, nowhere in the world... He had nowhere to call home. ADV: be ADV, ADV after v, usu ADV to-inf, ADV adj/-ed to-inf 3. You use nowhere to indicate that something or someone cannot be seen or found. Michael glanced anxiously down the corridor, but Wilfred was nowhere to be seen... The escaped prisoner was nowhere in sight... ADV: be ADV, oft ADV to-inf, ADV adv/prep 4. You can use nowhere to refer in a general way to small, unimportant, or uninteresting places. ...endless paths that led nowhere in particular. ...country roads that go from nowhere to nowhere. ADV: ADV after v, from/to ADV 5. If you say that something or someone appears from nowhere or out of nowhere, you mean that they appear suddenly and unexpectedly. A car came from nowhere, and I had to jump back into the hedge just in time... Houses had sprung up out of nowhere on the hills. ADV: from/out of ADV 6. You use nowhere to mean not in any part of a text, speech, or argument. He nowhere offers concrete historical background to support his arguments... Point taken, but nowhere did we suggest that this yacht’s features were unique... The most important issue for most ordinary people was nowhere on the proposed agenda. ADV: ADV before v, be ADV, oft ADV prep c darkgreen]emphasis 7. If you say that a place is in the middle of nowhere, you mean that it is a long way from other places. At dusk we pitched camp in the middle of nowhere. PHRASE: usu PHR after v, v-link PHR 8. If you say that you are getting nowhere, or getting nowhere fast, or that something is getting you nowhere, you mean that you are not achieving anything or having any success. My mind won’t stop going round and round on the same subject and I seem to be getting nowhere... ‘Getting nowhere fast,’ pronounced Crosby, ‘that’s what we’re doing.’... Oh, stop it! This is getting us nowhere. PHRASE: V inflects 9. If you use nowhere near in front of a word or expression, you are emphasizing that the real situation is very different from, or has not yet reached, the state which that word or expression suggests. He’s nowhere near recovered yet from his experiences... The chair he sat in was nowhere near as comfortable as the custom-designed one behind his desk. PHRASE c darkgreen]emphasis