dry lake

American  

noun

1. a tract of land in a desert region over which a shallow lake is formed during the rainy season or after prolonged heavy rains.

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Example Sentences

Since 2018, the Salton Sea no longer gets an inflow of fresh water, only agricultural runoff, so it is evaporating and shrinking while the exposed, dry lake bed area is expanding, feeding clouds of particulate.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 15, 2025

Black Rock City Municipal Airport appears in the desert for 13 days each year around festival time, using two runways on the dry lake bed, and then disappears, according to its website.

From Reuters • Sep. 4, 2023

What had been a dry lake bed filled with crops and crisscrossed by powerlines began to go underwater.

From Seattle Times • May 22, 2023

From its signature red-colored soil to canyons, dead volcanoes and dry lake beds, the Martian landscape has intrigued humans for generations.

From Salon • Apr. 25, 2023

When he turned away from the sun to mount the mare, he saw the spotted cattle, grazing in a dry lake flat below the ridge.

From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko