nobody home
Lights off, absent
Nobody home describes mental absence or vacancy.
Someone with nobody home isn't paying attention, lacks intelligence, or seems mentally checked out: I waved at him but there was nobody home—just staring into space.
The phrase evokes knocking on a door to find the house empty.
Also appears as the lights are on but nobody's home, suggesting the appearance of awareness without actual presence.
- out to lunchDistracted, unaware of surroundings
- vacantWithout an occupant
- not all thereMentally deficient somehow
- absent-mindedProne to forgetting things
- distractedUnable to concentrate
blank stare · empty · daydreaming · unoccupied · hollow · oblivious · away with the fairies · scatterbrained · checked out · spaced-out · missing in action · head in the clouds · forsaken · desolate · disengaged · lost in thought · void · gone fishing
nobody homeoccupied
Currently in use
at home · full house · inhabited · home · tenanted
nobody homesharp as a tack
Extremely intelligent and alert
all there · alert · bright · sharp · quick-witted
nobody, home, body, bodies, bodied, bodily, embody, embodied, embodiment