twilight zone

English

Etymology 1

Noun

twilight zone (plural twilight zones)

1. A region or context located in between others and therefore not subject to their norms.
   • 1911, Case and Comment

     As to this right, therefore, the people have expressly created a twilight zone, in which neither nation nor state can act.

   • 1978, Cornelius Cole Smith, Fort Huachuca: The Story of a Frontier Post

     They were interesting because they represented a sort of twilight zone separating the "old days" from modern times.

   • 1999, Grant Gilmore, Security Interests in Personal Property‎

     ...the classification scheme related to goods which lay in a "twilight zone" between consumer goods and equipment or between inventory and farm products.

   • 2006, Charles C Marshall, The Roman Catholic Church in the Modern State

     But is there not a twilight zone over which both Church and State put forth claims?

Synonyms

• shadowland

Etymology 2

From the anthology television series The Twilight Zone, first aired in 1959.

Noun

twilight zone (plural twilight zones)

1. (figuratively) a region in which surreal, supernatural, or fantastic events occur
   • 1996 Christopher Lloyd, "Mixed Doubles," Frasier, Season 4, Episode 6 (originally aired 19 November 1996), spoken by Martin Crane (John Mahoney)

     Oh, I can't talk right now, Duke. I'm in the twilight zone.

   • 1998 Eric Chaisson, The Hubble wars: astrophysics meets astropolitics in the two-billion-dollar struggle over the Hubble Space Telescope, Harvard University Press, p337

     Ground controllers were uncertain for some agonizing hours what had happened to the spacecraft [...] "We have entered the twilight zone," dead-panned one jaded engineer.

   • 2009 Steve Sisgold, What's Your Body Telling You?: Listening To Your Body's Signals to Stop Anxiety, Erase Self-Doubt and Achieve True Wellness, McGraw-Hill Professional, p103

     Suddenly, to her astonishment and mine, it turned black and blue! I wondered if we'd just entered the twilight zone.