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badlands

American  
[bad-landz] / ˈbædˌlændz /

plural noun

  1. a barren area in which soft rock strata are eroded into varied, fantastic forms.

badlands British  
/ ˈbædˌlændz /

plural noun

  1. any deeply eroded barren area

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of badlands

An Americanism dating back to 1850–55; bad 1 + land + -s 3; translation of French mauvaises terres, alluding to the difficulty in traversing such country

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.