No, I sun myself up in the country (6)

I believe the answer is:
nation
'country' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'no i sun myself up in the' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'no' could be 'o' (resembles 0 - 'no' can mean 'zero') and 'o' is present in the answer.
'i' could be 'a' and 'a' is present in the answer.
'myself' could be 'i' and 'i' is located in the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nation that I've seen before include "Body of people united by their homeland" , "Large community of people under one government" , "Turkey?" , "People sharing a common culture/descent" , "A federation of tribes, as Native Americans say" .)
