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Glite Dictionary
going to Oz

going to Oz

9.9
To imagine being in a happy, magical place to escape real life
  • idiom
  • Literature
translation icon : ir a Oz
  • Every time life got tough, she found herself going to Oz in her imagination.

Examples

  • Some people cope with stress by mentally going to Oz for a while.

  • He admitted that daydreaming about going to Oz helped him get through boring meetings.

  • She dreams of going to Oz every night.

  • Are you going to Oz this summer?

  • Whenever she felt overwhelmed, she would find herself going to Oz in her mind, escaping to a place of wonder.

  • During stressful times, he often relaxed by going to Oz, envisioning a land full of magic and adventure.

  • She frequently spoke of going to Oz as a way to cope with reality, imagining herself in a fantastical world far away.

Synonyms

magical journey
vsgoing to Oz
1 4.6

An adventure in a wonderful world with things that are not real

focuses on imagining an ideal peaceful escape rather than an active adventure
trip to Xanadu
vsgoing to Oz
  • Literature
1 9.9

A journey to a perfect, beautiful place in your dreams

is a broader escape into any fantastical place rather than a luxury vacation

Antonyms

reality
∞ 1.4

The way things really are, not how we imagine or wish

How Fantastical

going to Oz
  • Literature
9.9
to fantasize
  • US
126 4.5
daydreaming
1 3.2
imagining
12 3.5

Surface Forms

going to Oz main

Morphology

going + to + Oz

The phrase is compositionally built from 'going' + 'to' + a place name, so if a learner knows 'Oz' as the fictional/magical Land of Oz the literal idea of travel is transparent. However, the common figurative use (imagining oneself in a magical/ideal place or escaping reality) depends on cultural knowledge and metaphorical extension of that literary referent, so the full idiomatic sense is not reliably predictable to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Going to Oz comes from the famous story 'The Wizard of Oz', where Dorothy leaves her ordinary life and finds a bright, magical land called Oz. So going to Oz means 'traveling in your imagination' to a happy, magical place to escape from real life.