ghost town
noun
: a once-flourishing town wholly or nearly deserted usually as a result of the exhaustion of some natural resource
Examples of ghost town in a Sentence
After all the gold was mined, the place became a ghost town.
Recent Examples on the Web
In the ghost towns of the north, residents are haunted by uncertainty.
—
William Booth, Washington Post, 6 Apr. 2024
Seavey was also the first musher to leave the checkpoint in the mining ghost town of Ophir, about 350 miles into the race after only staying for 15 minutes.
—CBS News, 7 Mar. 2024
The ghost town was left submerged under a manmade lake, and today just a few inaccessible roads and private homes remain of the once prosperous community.
—Detroit Free Press, 4 Mar. 2024
But our primary destination is the cluster of buildings just west of Las Olas Riverfront (which is its own kind of ghost town), including the River House, New River Inn, the King-Cromartie House and the 1899 Replica Schoolhouse where Ivy Cromartie Stranahan was Fort Lauderdale’s first teacher.
—Miami Staff, Miami Herald, 30 Jan. 2024
The reclaimed coal mine sits too far from any interstate to attract businesses, Harless explained, and now the leftover building shells give it a strange, industrial, ghost town feel.
—Maggie Menderski, The Courier-Journal, 20 Feb. 2024
Northcote and Preston, two up-and-coming neighborhoods, often felt like ghost towns.
—Simbarashe Cha, New York Times, 17 Jan. 2024
As a result, theaters became concert venues rather than ghost towns in what otherwise would have been a depressing fall at the movies.
—Rebecca Rubin, Variety, 16 Oct. 2023
In July 1881, the Wabash Railroad ran its first train through Van Buren Township, three miles south of Belleville, and Michigan Central built a line about three miles north of Rawsonville — before long the area was a ghost town.
—Detroit Free Press, 4 Mar. 2024
William Booth, Washington Post, 6 Apr. 2024
Seavey was also the first musher to leave the checkpoint in the mining ghost town of Ophir, about 350 miles into the race after only staying for 15 minutes.
—CBS News, 7 Mar. 2024
The ghost town was left submerged under a manmade lake, and today just a few inaccessible roads and private homes remain of the once prosperous community.
—Detroit Free Press, 4 Mar. 2024
But our primary destination is the cluster of buildings just west of Las Olas Riverfront (which is its own kind of ghost town), including the River House, New River Inn, the King-Cromartie House and the 1899 Replica Schoolhouse where Ivy Cromartie Stranahan was Fort Lauderdale’s first teacher.
—Miami Staff, Miami Herald, 30 Jan. 2024
The reclaimed coal mine sits too far from any interstate to attract businesses, Harless explained, and now the leftover building shells give it a strange, industrial, ghost town feel.
—Maggie Menderski, The Courier-Journal, 20 Feb. 2024
Northcote and Preston, two up-and-coming neighborhoods, often felt like ghost towns.
—Simbarashe Cha, New York Times, 17 Jan. 2024
As a result, theaters became concert venues rather than ghost towns in what otherwise would have been a depressing fall at the movies.
—Rebecca Rubin, Variety, 16 Oct. 2023
In July 1881, the Wabash Railroad ran its first train through Van Buren Township, three miles south of Belleville, and Michigan Central built a line about three miles north of Rawsonville — before long the area was a ghost town.
—Detroit Free Press, 4 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ghost town.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Ghost town.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ghost%20town. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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