podunk

podunk

1. adjective Completely insignificant, out-of-the-way, and unsophisticated or uninteresting. The last I heard he had moved to some podunk little town in the middle of nowhere.
2. noun A fictional rural place that is completely insignificant, out-of-the-way, and unsophisticated or uninteresting. Capitalized in this use. Why would such a slick company like them hire some farm boy from Podunk like me? You'd better learn your way around this city. You're not in Podunk anymore, kid.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

Podunk

(ˈpodəŋk)
1. n. an imaginary rural town where everything and everyone is backward, old-fashioned, and inferior. This is the big city, not Podunk.
2. mod. rural and backward. (Usually podunk.) I want out of this podunk town.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

Podunk

A relatively unimportant rural place, town, or region. It is actually the name of several real towns and the name is derived from Algonquian, in which it denoted the name of a people and a marshy location. Mark Twain referred to it in a deprecating way, talking about a controversy and saying “They even know it in Podunk, wherever that may be” (“Mr. Beecher and the Clergy,” 1869). See also boonies; one-horse town.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • not anything to boast about
  • not much to boast about
  • nothing to boast about
  • appropriate for
  • bulletproof
  • nerd mobile
  • cool story, bro
  • joe job
  • do or die
  • do or die, to
References in periodicals archive
One suspects he'll take it in stride, just as he accepts country radio's blackout and the confines of the tour bus that will take him to Podunk tomorrow and beyond.
Beyond his legacy, Merle still matters: CMT honors son of Bakersfield who rolls on, swingin' the hits
Only one store of the five is still operating as it did in the 1950s: Podunk, located at Mulliken Road and Vermontville Highway.
Shopping at the country store
Poppy Browne and her college professor mother move from Boulder, Colorado, to the "podunk town" of Pleasant Acres, Texas.
Toliver, Wendy. Lifted: Good Girl. Bad Habit
"It's a Podunk bridge," agreed Joe Harwood, spokesman for the Eugene Water & Electric Board.
McKenzie bridge work will detour hikers
"I mean there'd be a, you know, a defense or public defender from Podunk, you know, and this woman is really brilliant, you know.
The best minds
"According to both standard journalism practice and Defense Department policy, military commanders do not get to say which reporters get assigned where, whether they work for Stars and Stripes, The New York Times, MSNBC, the Huffington Post or the Podunk Gazette," Prendergast wrote.
'Stars and Stripes' Ombud Slams Military Over Embed Denial
Ultimately she decided to put her "podunk little life" in Missoula, Mont., on hold to become the first transgender person on the iconic MTV program.
Katelynn Cusanelli
Instantly the press agencies flash the name of your book to every town and village in the United States, and your publisher gets orders by telegraph from Podunk and Kalamazoo.
Heating Oil! Striking it richer
If the Bank of Podunk, Colo., gets into trouble, will the Fed ride to the rescue?
Beware the ides of March
By working together with your new neighbours, a real community spirit is built up rather than creating a podunk backwater environment that resembles something from the hit Channel 4 show, Shameless.
A true habitat for all humanity in one city; happening The Urbanite Dip into Paul Corcoran's pool of thoughts Dip into Paul Corcoran's pool of thoughts
Samuelson summed it up very clearly by stating, "Suppose that Princeton and Podunk accept you and me; but you go to Princeton and I go to Podunk.
Does attending an Arkansas college limit your options?
World War 3.0: Microsoft and Its Enemies, Ken Auletta's blow-by-blow account of the software titan's Waterloo, is the ideal antidote to those bland Podunk Times recaps.
WORLD WAR 3.0: Microsoft and Its Enemies
In its heyday, after all, even the original Podunk boasted 700 residents.
Moving On? Beware "Thumbhunters"
The company saw me as out there in Podunk, and nobody was interested in training me.
How do you get experience?
To expect busy readers in Podunk or Brooklyn to wade through a tome that analyzes, say, the strike by French workers, is not only a waste of time and space; it's downright foolish.
Leave ho-hum editorials to 'Foreign Affairs.'