ghost town

noun

1. a town permanently abandoned by its inhabitants, as because of a business decline or because a nearby mine has been worked out.

ghost town

noun

1. a deserted town, esp one in the western US that was formerly a boom town

ghost town

1. A town, especially a boomtown in the old American West, that has been completely abandoned and deserted: “If you drive through the desert, you can still see the main street of Dry Gulch, a ghost town.”

Word History and Origins

Origin of ghost town¹

First recorded in 1870–75

Idioms and Phrases

A once thriving town that has been completely abandoned, as in Many of the old mining communities are ghost towns now. This idiom implies that there are no living people left in town. [First half of 1900s]