badland

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noun bad·land \ ˈbad-ˌland \

Definition of badland

:a region marked by intricate erosional sculpturing, scanty vegetation, and fantastically formed hills —usually used in plural

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Recent Examples of badland from the Web

The fossilized remnants of the Bisti Beast, or Bistahieversor sealeyi, were found in 1996 in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin badlands near Farmington, New Mexico.

— susan montoya bryan, The Seattle Times, "Neutron beams, x-rays reveal more about T. rex relative," 15 Aug. 2017
The area stretches from the badlands of the Lebanese town of Arsal and Christian villages of Ras Baalbek and Qaa, to the outskirts of Syria's Qalamoun region and parts of the western Syrian town of Qusair that Hezbollah captured in 2013.

— Bloomberg.com, "Lebanon's Army Prepares to Clear Border Area of IS Militants," 8 Aug. 2017
Australia is known for fun and sun, but the badlands of Queensland can get a bit intense: Satellites operated by NASA recorded a temperature of nearly 157°F there in 2003.

— liz langley, National Geographic, "These Animals Thrive in the Hottest Places on Earth," 5 Aug. 2017
U.S. President Donald Trump credited the Lebanese government with standing up to Hezbollah, last week, but the Lebanese Army assumed a defensive position behind Hezbollah lines in the course of the battles in the Arsal badlands.

— Washington Post, "Exchange of bodies ahead of Syria-Lebanon border plan," 30 July 2017
The temperature in Death Valley’s crumpled badlands was expected to reach 126 degrees by the afternoon, but things started to cook long before that at the Wrangler Restaurant in Furnace Creek on Tuesday.

— louis sahagun, latimes.com, "'It’s just too hot': Death Valley cafe loses air conditioning as temperature soars," 20 June 2017
BAGHDAD — The highway from Baghdad to Amman, Jordan, cuts through the insurgent badlands of the western Iraqi desert, and these days any truck driver risks confrontation with roving bands of gunmen.

— tim arango, New York Times, "U.S. Sees a Vital Iraqi Toll Road, but Iran Sees a Threat," 27 May 2017
These two men, accompanied by teams of more-or-less willing students, stuck out every summer for the badlands of the Wild West in search of dinosaur fossils.

— steve donoghue, The Christian Science Monitor, "'Dragon Teeth' – the latest posthumous Crichton book – is propulsively readable," 24 May 2017
The dinosaur lived some 75 million years ago in what are now the badlands of northern Montana.

— traci watson, USA TODAY, "Meet Zuul, the new dinosaur species named after 'Ghostbusters' demon," 9 May 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'badland.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.