hellscape

American  

[hel-skeyp] / ˈhɛlˌskeɪp /

noun

1. a bleak landscape or one that resembles hell.

   a post-apocalyptic hellscape.

2. a place or time that is hopeless, unbearable, or irredeemable: College application season is a hellscape.

   It’s impossible to avoid the hellscape of social media.

   College application season is a hellscape.

   Enjoy your existence on this hellscape in whatever way you can.

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Etymology

Origin of hellscape

First recorded in 1890–95; hell ( def. ) + -scape ( def. )

Example Sentences

You don’t want to end up like this lost soul, lugging his giant gambles through the hellscape of his own mind:

From The Wall Street Journal

The car bumped and thumped over more debris in the road, and Akira’s eyes were drawn back to the hellscape outside her window.

From Literature

The film offers nothing like an insight into social problems nor any solution to the hellscape in which these folks live.

From The Wall Street Journal

You make your way through whatever you went through — the subway, the traffic, the hellscape that is Times Square — you finally get here, and then you hope that the entire experience will be as short as humanly possible.

From Los Angeles Times

Sam Paparo has called a “hellscape” for the Chinese military if it attempts an invasion across the Taiwan Strait.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• antiutopia
• cacotopia