Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Land that is desolate, barren, or ravaged.
  • noun Something that is lacking in intellectual or cultural substance.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A region with no remaining resources; a desert.
  • noun Any barren or uninteresting place.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

waste +‎ land

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Examples

  • That a traitor to England, the writer of Lord Horror, the infamous killer of children and a doomed rock ‘n’ roll showman have voyaged through the same miniscule wasteland is a beguiling fact.

    Ballardian » “Enthusiasm for the mysterious emissaries of pulp”: an interview with David Britton (the Savoy interviews, part 2a) 2010

  • I'm voting Democrat because protecting barren wasteland is more important than energy independence.

    Transmitting History 2008

  • To turn your customer base into a constantly-on-alert totalitarian wasteland is not the effective solution.

    - Boing Boing 2005

  • A tourist returning from hiking along the Great Wall of China decided to take a short cut by jumping down onto 'wasteland' - and was instantly killed when he landed in the jaws of a tiger.

    Feeding time for tiger. Give that man a Darwin Award. FIDO The Dog 2009

  • A tourist returning from hiking along the Great Wall of China decided to take a short cut by jumping down onto 'wasteland' - and was instantly killed when he landed in the jaws of a tiger.

    Home | Mail Online 2009

  • Michael Lee, who retired in December 2005, alleged he was demoted from leading the Gang Enforcement Squad to the records section -- described as a "wasteland" -- after he requested an investigation into his former boss, Cmdr. George Hall, who he said used a racial slur.

    detnews.com - Local 2009

  • | Reply played ‘em all except for number 5. starcontrol ii was phenomenal. personally, i thought multiplayer doom was more fun than halo and unreal because you still got to shoot up all the monsters in the middle of frag fests. wasteland is absolutely glorious. scott, remember me telling you that i wanted to have a podcast discussion about that game?

    EXTRALIFE – By Scott Johnson - The top 5 PC games you never played. 2007

  • I thought that Holmes’ term wasteland was not inappropriate.

    The Moor King, Laurie R. 1998

  • MySpace will always be known as a wasteland where kiddies and self-proclaimed web designers subject the world to their design atrocities.

    Why MySpace Is Really GeoCities 2.0 2009

  • Most of the place is a volcanic wasteland, which is cold much of the year (and has two small ice caps) and that pesky polar cycle of seasons where the sun goes down for only two hours a night in summer and not at all for most of the winter.

    Eric Lurio: Iceland Is Melting! 2008

Comments

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  • April is the cruellest month, breeding

    Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

    Memory and desire, stirring

    Dull roots with spring rain. -T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland

    December 18, 2006