Wasteland
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A place with no remaining resources; a desert.
"Ten years of drought had left the area a wasteland."
- 2 an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation wordnet
- 3 Any barren or uninteresting place.
"After his experiences, he no longer found western Kansas such a wasteland."
- 4 A devastated, uninhabitable area.
"Another place where, from the aesthetic point of view, a long tunnel would have been a real blessing, is East London as viewed from the carriage window on the old Great Eastern line. Despite a vast change from crowded slums to tracts of wasteland, due to its grim wartime experience, this approach still provides a shabby and unworthy introduction to the great capital."
- 5 Unused land.
"Azaz and Ray were nominated individually for what, at first glance, looked like a project to transform wasteland at South Tottenham station into a community garden."
Example
More examples"Over the next fifteen years, architects, planners and community developers will work together to transform 346 acres of industrial wasteland into 6,500 homes, two shopping centres, a marina, a primary school and college, and parkland."
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English wast lond, modification of earlier weste lond, from Old English weste land (“wasteland”); equivalent to waste + land.