Garden Staten.
/ˌɡɑːdn ˈsteɪt/, U.S. /ˈɡɑrd(ə)n ˌsteɪt/ 1. U.S. With the. A name given to New Jersey on account of its fertility or natural beauty. Also (esp. in earlier use): a name given to any of various other American states noted for fertility or natural beauty.
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the world > the earth > named regions of earth > America > North America > [noun] > United States > specific states > New Jersey
Garden State1852
Mosquito State1923
1852 N.-Y. Daily Times 13 May 4/2 A line of road running through the garden-spot of the garden State of the Union.
1865 Daily Morning Chron. (Washington, D.C.) 29 Sept. 2/3 Verily, Illinois is justly called ‘The Garden State’.
1871 M. S. De Vere Americanisms 659 Kansas is often called the Garden State, from the beautiful appearance of rolling prairies and vast cultivated fields.
1948 Sat. Evening Post 20 Nov. 57/2 When the first nip of frost chills the New Jersey air, cooks in the Garden State revive this recipe.
1967 Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 25 June (1970) 537 Betty Hughes was the tour guide... Her state [sc. New Jersey] is called the ‘Garden State’.
2010 Independent on Sunday 17 Oct. 34/3 The other rail tunnel is..in New Jersey, and would have linked the Garden State to Manhattan.
2. Australian. Chiefly with the. A name given to the state of Victoria.
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1905 Austral. To-day 15 Dec. (Victoria) 1 Victoria, ‘The Garden State of Australia,’ has an area of 87,000 square miles.
1946 Victoria Garden State (Victorian Railways Commissioners) 1 Victoria Garden State of Australia. Here is a fertile and progressive State.
1987 Country Life 29 Oct. 132/1 The climate of Melbourne, in the Garden State, is enviable.
2005 J. Egginton Working & Living: Austral. 63 The Murray River..waters the lush vineyards, farmland and orchards of the garden state.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2017; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1852