Word.ws English Dictionary

on the nod

on the nod prepositional phrase: with no discussion or controversy.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (UK, informal) With no discussion or controversy.
    • The New Economic Policy (or NEP) in its rudimentary form was approved almost on the nod and the Leninists won the debate on the trade unions without difficulty.2005, Robert Service, Stalin: A Biography, →ISBN
    • It's because it's quite an extraordinary piece of writing, and had it come with a name more celebrated in literary than artistic circles I would have taken it on the nod, and appreciatively so.2006 October 7, Nicholas Lezard, “In bed with Tracey Emin”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
  2. (slang) In a stuporous state following a high from heroin.
    • She was nearly 'on the nod' from all the heroin she had coursing through her veins and couldn't handle a struggle.2011, d'Artagnan Rene, The Ivory Tower, →ISBN
    • After that, Bobby Joe wandered, doing odd jobs, stealing for his daily fixes, moving with one old lady and then another, always more or less in a fog or on the nod and desperate for smack and bread, until he landed in the Evening Star commune out on Milagro's Strawberry Mesa with Lady Elephant, nee...2013, John Nichols, The Milagro Beanfield War, →ISBN, page 258

Examples of on the nod in a sentence

  • Finally, if they decided to award a triumph, the petition was presented to the people of Rome for ratification, which always went through on the nod.2014, Robin Waterfield, Taken at the Flood: The Roman Conquest of Greece, →ISBN:
  • ...when an addict admitted that he had gone on the nod in his bed on Christmas Day with a needle still stuck in his arm and his baby daughter asleep on his chest.2013, Darren Greer, Still Life with June, →ISBN:

Questions about on the nod

What does on the nod mean?
On the nod means with no discussion or controversy.
How do you use on the nod in a sentence?
Finally, if they decided to award a triumph, the petition was presented to the people of Rome for ratification, which always went through on the nod.
What part of speech is on the nod?
On the nod is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the nod in the dictionary

  1. on the move
  2. on the muscle
  3. on the nail
  4. on the needle
  5. on the nick
  6. on the nod
  7. on the nose
  8. on the nut
  9. on the off chance
  10. on the one hand
  11. on the order of

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the nod (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “on the nod.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_nod. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.