Solvation dynamics of a nonaqueous solvent, NN-dimethylformamide (DMF) has been studied for the first time in a beta -cyclodextrin (beta -CD) cavity using picosecond time dependent fluorescence Stokes' shift and 4-aminophthalimide (4-AP) as a probe. Solvation dynamics of confined DMF molecules within the beta -CD cavity is found to be described by a component of 400 +/- 50 ps (25%) and a slow component of 8 +/-1 ns (75%). This is substantially slower than the solvation time (similar to1 ps) in bulk DMF.