How to get text node after element?

Just use the plain-JavaScript nextSibling, though you have to 'drop out of' jQuery to use that method (hence the [0]):

var text = $('input:checkbox[name="something"]')[0].nextSibling.nodeValue; 

JS Fiddle demo.

And I finally realised what was wrong with my other suggestion, which has been fixed:

var text = $('input:checkbox[name="something"]').parent().contents().filter( function(){ return this.nodeType === 3 && this.nodeValue.trim() !== ''; }).first().text(); 

JS Fiddle demo.

And to make sure that you're only getting the textNodes from before the br (though frankly this is becoming overly-complex, and the first suggestion works far more easily and, I suspect reliably):

var text = $('input:checkbox[name="something"]').parent().contents().filter( function(){ return this.nodeType === 3 && this.nodeValue.trim() !== '' && $(this).prevAll('br').length === 0; }).text(); 

JS Fiddle demo.

If you added a label to your markup (which is recommended), you could do it this way:

HTML

<input type="checkbox" id="something" name="something" value="v1" /><label for="something">All the world</label> <br /> 

JS

var text = $( '#something ~ label:first' ).text(); 

Just to toss in a example to a way old question, wrap text in a label

$('input[type="checkbox"]') .each(function(index, el) { var textNode = $(el.nextSibling); if (textNode[0].nodeType == Node.TEXT_NODE) { let checkwrap = $(el).wrap('<label class="found"></label>').closest('.found'); textNode.appendTo(checkwrap); } });

.found { border: solid cyan 1px; color: blue; padding: 0.5em; display: inline-block; margin: 0.3em; } label.found { color: lime; }

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.12.4/jquery.min.js"></script> <span>in a span</span> <input type="checkbox" name='something' value='v1' /> All the world <br /> <input type="checkbox" name='something2' value='v2' /> All the world 2 <span>in a span</span><br /> <input type="checkbox" name='something3' value='v3' /> All the world 3 <span>in a span</span> <input type="checkbox" name='something4' value='v4' /> All the world 4<span>in a span also</span>

there, wrapped in a label, oh wait, that is an answer, just have to get the nextSibling isolated by type