not in Kansas anymore

English

WOTD – 10 August 2006

Etymology

From the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, in which Dorothy states, “Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.”

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Adjective

not in Kansas anymore

1. (idiomatic, colloquial, US) No longer in quiet and comfortable surroundings

   As soon as I walked into that party I thought, "I'm not in Kansas anymore."

   • 1986 April, Gerald Hannon, “Leaving Kansas”, in The Body Politic, number 125, Pink Triangle Press, page 8:

     John Crosbie? A Tory government? You could be forgiven if your first reaction was the feeling that you weren't in Kansas anymore.

   • 1990 October 1, “Critics' Voices”, in Time‎^[1], archived from the original on 2013-03-05:

     The police action is rough and raw, like Hill Street Blues. But when a courtroom jury, asked for its verdict, breaks into song, we know we're not in Kansas anymore.

   • 1991 July, Ray Duncan, “Power Programming”, in PC Magazine, page 444:

     C++ meets all three of these classic criteria of object-orientedness, but once you really start to take advantage of them in your programs, you'll find you're definitely not in Kansas anymore.

Synonyms

• out of one's depth

See also

• you can't go home again