Alice in Wonderland

• Alice-in-Wonderland

Derived from the children's fantasy story Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Alice in Wonderland (comparative more Alice in Wonderland, superlative most Alice in Wonderland)

1. As in a surreal fairy tale where things work at odds to the way they do in the real world.
   • 1978 Apr, Popular Mechanics, volume 149, number 4, page 204:

     It is an Alice in Wonderland question. Let me answer it this way: To design a car, you must — emphasize must — have restrictions to guide you.

   • 1987, Acres, U.S.A.: Volume 6:

     The law-making affair often has an Alice in Wonderland touch. Terms are defined by law, and if the law says black is white, then for the purpose of the law, black is white.

   • 1992 September 7, Network World, volume 9, number 36, page 37:

     IBM's current system and network management story has an Alice in Wonderland touch to it, with incongruity as the prevailing theme. Just as it is in Wonderland, most things in IBM's management story are not what they appear to be.

   • 2001, Phil Gramm, Congressional Record-Senate, March 29, 2001, page 5053:

     What makes this debate an Alice in Wonderland debate is that the people who support this bill are the very people who will benefit from taking the American people out of the debate by limiting the ability of people to put up their time.

   • 2002, Alan Stripp, Codebreaker in the Far East, page 35:

     It became more Alice in Wonderland all the time: was I now to navigate as well?

   • 2008, Lisa Margonelli, Oil on the Brain: Petroleum's Long, Strange Trip to Your Tank, page 68:

     This is all a little more Alice in Wonderland than I had expected.

   • 2012, Danny Danon, Israel: The Will to Prevail, page 69:

     Herzog further noted that the United Nations developed an Alice in Wonderland perspective on Israel.

   • 2014, L. Pope, The Demilitarization of American Diplomacy:

     Tautology is not a problem in an Alice in Wonderland world in which a junior official can be said to coordinate the work of the Secretary of State.

• Alice in Wonderlandish

Alice in Wonderland (plural Alices in Wonderland or Alice in Wonderlands)

1. An observer of strange, incomprehensible or disorienting situations.
   • 1965, Alpha Omicron Pi, To Dragma - Volume 56, Issue 11, page 24:

     After three years of meeting in a tiny room in the student center, we were stunned that we could all get in one room and move around without stepping on each other. It wasn't crowded; and besides that, it was beautiful. We felt like 50 Alices in Wonderland.

   • 1980, Canada. Parliament. House of Commons, House of Commons Debates, Official Report - Volume 3, page 3251:

     But I do not live in a riding that represents the Alice in Wonderlands of the world, Mr. Speaker.

   • 2014, Jane Peranteau, Jumping: A Novel, page 189:

     I'm giddy. I haven't even stopped to notice my surroundings. I'm not much of an Alice in Wonderland.

   • 2014, Anthony Slide, It's the Pictures That Got Small, page 4:

     Brackett views the community rather as might an Alice in Wonderland according to the entries in his diaries, although the same diary entries do not reflect his later claim that he “was assigned to twelve different stories in my first year."

2. A strange, fantasy-like creation or situation that follows its own bizarre logic.
   • 2012, J. Morganroth, E. Neil Moore, Congestive Heart Failure:

     I think it is an Alice in Wonderland to say we are going to approve another drug, yet the whole fundamental thing is we still have exactly the same mortality and nobody has anything that impacts on it.

   • 2014, Penelope Rowlands, The Beatles Are Here!::

     Sgt. Pepper seemed to be nothing less than an Alice in Wonderland for the brave new psychedelic world.

   • 2019 June 26, Kevin Pang, “Eric Trump went to a fancy Chicago cocktail bar and got spat on”, in The Takeout:

     Some context: The Aviary is like the Alice in Wonderland of cocktail bars, a place where drinks are served in porthole vessels or in sphere/foam/gelee form (there’s an outpost in New York City, but the original is in Chicago).

• Alice in Wonderland syndrome

• caucus race
• Cheshire cat
• rabbit hole
• mad hatter