Meanings
- poeticThe state of sleep, or an imaginary place that one inhabits when asleep.
Neverout. Why, miss, if you fall asleep, somebody may get a pair of gloves. / Col. I'm going to the land of Nod.
1731 (date written), Simon Wagstaff [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “Dialogue III”, in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, […], London: […] B[enjamin] Motte […], published 1738, →OCLC, page 2142 more examples
From breakfast on through all the day / At home among my friends I stay; / But every night I go abroad / Afar into the land of Nod.
1885, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Land of Nod”, in A Child's Garden of Verses[…] but she was too tired for anything under heaven to disturb her, and after a moment of wakeful dreaming she was in the land of Nod!
1892, Wenona Gilman [pseudonym; Florence Blackburn White Schoeffel], chapter XXX, in Leonie, The Typewriter, New York: Norman L. Munro
Origin
From Genesis 4:16, first used by Jonathan Swift as a play on words for the modern-day meaning. Compare nod off.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish unten maa, nukkumatin maa
- unten maaTranslations
- nukkumatin maaTranslations
French pays des rêves
- pays des rêvesTranslations
Polish objęcia Morfeusza
- objęcia MorfeuszaTranslations
Cite this entry
land of Nod. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/land%20of%20Nod
“land of Nod.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/land%20of%20Nod. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “land of Nod,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/land%20of%20Nod.
Source: land of Nod on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.