English Explanatory Dictionary

there is no there there

English dictionary entry

Meanings

phrase
  1. The indicated thing, person, or other matter has no distinctive identity, or no significant characteristics, or no functional center point; nothing significant exists in that place; nothing significant is occurring in that situation.

Word forms

there is no there there there's no there there there's no "there" there there is no "there" there

Etymology

From a remark by Gertrude Stein in Everybody's Autobiography (1937), concerning the fact that her childhood home in Oakland, California, no longer existed.

Related words

wherever you go, there you are
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