no-mans land
Between opposing forces
No-man's-land is territory that belongs to no one or that no one controls—originally the unoccupied ground between opposing trenches in trench warfare, where soldiers from either side risked death.
The term extends to any disputed, dangerous, or ambiguous zone: The border region was a legal no-man's-land.
Figuratively, it describes situations without clear rules or ownership: The ethics of AI exist in a regulatory no-man's-land.
- battlefieldCombat engagement area
- Western FrontFranco-Belgian combat zone
- trenchesElongated ground excavations
- over the topExcessively theatrical or extreme
- killing fieldMass execution location
wasteland · barren · desolate · warzone · hostile territory · buffer · limbo · frontier · neutral · combat · mud · rubble · purgatory · void · empty space · terra incognita · between · crossing
- bordersborder, boundary, border crossing, national borders, boundary line
- Korean DMZDMZ, 38th parallel, demarcation line, armistice line, ceasefire line
- border controlvisa requirements, passport control, guard, border crossing, border security
- territoriesprovince, state, region, country, colony
- boundariesboundary, boundary line, borders, border, edges
- Cold WarBerlin Wall, Iron Curtain, arms race, Warsaw Pact, Cuban Missile Crisis
no-mans landhomeland
One's native land
sovereign territory · private property · occupied territory · stronghold · dominion
no-mans landheartland
Central region of significance
settlement · metropolis · civilization · farmland · city center
man, land, mans, lands, landed, landing, landlord, landless, manly