wasteland

noun waste·land \ ˈwāst-ˌland also -lənd \

|Updated on: 11 Aug 2018

Examples: wasteland in a Sentence

Definition of wasteland

1 : barren or uncultivated land

a desert wasteland

2 : an ugly often devastated or barely inhabitable place or area

3 : something (such as a way of life) that is spiritually and emotionally arid and unsatisfying

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Examples of wasteland in a Sentence

The outskirts of the city became a grim industrial wasteland.
That part of the country is a cultural wasteland.
the vast wasteland of television

Recent Examples of wasteland from the Web

And unlike in election cycles past, where California -- despite its size -- was a competitive wasteland due to a redistricting process in 2011 that sought to firm up incumbents of both parties, there are a surfeit of competitive contests this year.

— chris cillizza, CNN, "Today is the most important day of 2018 so far for Democrats' chances in the House," 5 June 2018
Traditionally, summer television is a wasteland of reruns and reality, which does make up the bulk of the networks' schedules in the months between June and September.

— therese odell, Houston Chronicle, "73 Reasons to look forward to summer TV," 25 May 2018
Many are striking edifices in Athens’ old commercial center, whole sections of which were killed by unchecked immigration, riots and Greece’s financial crisis that spawned wastelands of empty, shuttered shops.

— Washington Post, "AP PHOTOS: Life, and value, for derelict Greek properties," 10 July 2018
The latest volcanic eruption also stands as the most destructive in the United States since at least the cataclysmic 1980 explosion of Mount St. Helens in Washington state that reduced hundreds of square miles to wasteland.

— jolyn rosa, The Christian Science Monitor, "Trump approves disaster aid for Kilauea Volcano victims," 15 June 2018
The romance and promise of the American West was built, in part, on federal land grants to private corporations that promised to bring boomtowns to places previously otherwise deemed uninhabitable wastelands.

— ingrid burrington, The Atlantic, "New Mexico’s Sad Bet on Space Exploration," 2 Mar. 2018
On the surface, the idea of having a mid-30s drunk, who runs a dilapidated driving range somewhere in the wasteland of West Texas, qualify for the U.S. Open doesn't sound all that appealing.

— peter dawson, star-telegram, "Ranking the top 7 Texas sports movies of all time — and their best scenes," 28 June 2018
In the film, Tank Girl, aka Rebecca Buck, played by Lori Petty, fights oppression in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where water is scarce and harassment and violence against women and girls is prevalent.

— liz ohanesian, Los Angeles Magazine, "How Tank Girl Went From Box Office Bomb to Cult Classic," 14 June 2018
Whole reefs can quickly turn into barren wastelands.

— elena bectoros, The Christian Science Monitor, "Divers help to remove abandoned, destructive 'ghost' nets," 8 June 2018

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

First Known Use of wasteland

14th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

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wasteland Synonyms

Synonyms

barren, desert, desolation, heath, no-man's-land, waste;

Related Words

badland;

brush, bush;

dust bowl;

open, open air, outdoors, out-of-doors;

nature, wild, wilderness;

WASTELAND Defined for English Language Learners

wasteland

noun

Definition of wasteland for English Language Learners

: land where nothing can grow or be built : land that is not usable
: an ugly and often ruined place or area
: something that is being compared to a large, empty area of land because it has no real value or interest