twilight zone
To put or place into an indeterminate positionTo put or place into an indeterminate position; to be in an ambiguous, undetermined, or improper context.
» Dmitri felt like he had stepped into some sort of twilight zone.
Amastan · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
4 senses(idiomatic, intransitive, transitive)To put or place into an indeterminate position; to be in an ambiguous, undetermined, or improper context.
(idiomatic, transitive)To cause to daydream or zone out; to cause to lose attention to one's surroundings.
(idiomatic, intransitive)To experience or perceive something bizarre or fantastic.
(idiomatic, intransitive)To behave or occur in a confusing or unexpected manner.
Examples
3 sentencesDmitri felt like he had stepped into some sort of twilight zone.
Tom's blinks became longer and longer as he entered the twilight zone between wakefulness and sleep.
deDie Zeitspanne zwischen Toms Augenaufschlägen wurde immer länger, als er das Zwischenreich zwischen Wachen und Schlafen betrat. — raggione
It's a lot like that Twilight Zone episode with the omnipotent child.
Origin
Because such a zone (in the literal sense of the term) is twilit; see twilight § EtymologyBecause such a zone (in the literal sense of the term) is twilit; see twilight § Etymology.
From the anthology television series The Twilight Zone, first aired in 1959, whose name was inspired by the astrophysical sense.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
twilight zones, twilight zoning, twilight zoned, twilight zoned| Base form | twilight zone · to twilight zone |
|---|---|
| 3rd person singular | twilight zones |
| Present participle | twilight zoning |
| Past simple | twilight zoned |
| Past participle | twilight zoned |
regular
Lessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, irregular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.