rust belt

noun

(sometimes initial capital letters)

1. the heavily industrial area of the northeastern U.S. containing the older industries and factories.

rust belt

noun

1. an area where heavy industry is in decline, esp in the Midwest of the US

Word History and Origins

Origin of rust belt¹

First recorded in 1980–85

Example Sentences

“Out of the Furnace,” a Rust Belt industrial tragedy, featured Christian Bale and Casey Affleck.

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We’re betting everything on the Rust Belt because we just realized in 2010 that the race had started.

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Here’s a puzzle: Name two Rust Belt cities with ties to Joe Biden where home prices are going up faster than in most other American cities.

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At its worst, L.A. seems to be self-absorbed, deeply segregated for all its ethnic mix, stupefyingly rich and Third World poor, self-congratulatory yet in places as squalid and grimy as any Rust Belt burg, wearyingly obsessed with success, civically inept, a big floundering lummox of a place.

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“I’m probably the most proud of that album as a sonic work of art,” Joel says in the HBO doc of “The Nylon Curtain,” on which he and Ramone deployed the whoosh and crunch of a steel mill to juice the beat of this Rust Belt threnody.

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