sandlot

[sand-lot]

noun

a vacant lot used by youngsters for games or sports.

adjective

Also sand-lot. of, relating to, or played in such a lot: sandlot baseball.

Origin of sandlot

An Americanism dating back to 1880–85; sand + lot

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for sand-lot

Historical Examples of sand-lot

America listened to the blatant demagogues, the "sand-lot orators," and excluded the Chinese.
As A Chinaman Saw Us
Anonymous
To think of a Giant player being caught by a sand-lot trick!
Baseball Joe, Captain of the Team
Lester Chadwick
Under the excitement of sand-lot meetings, the Chinese were driven under cover.
Our Foreigners
Samuel P. Orth
That was the way they looked in Tompkins Square twenty years ago when the square was a sand-lot given up to rioting and disorder.
The Children of the Poor
Jacob A. Riis

British Dictionary definitions for sand-lot

sandlot

noun US

an area of vacant ground used by children for playing baseball and other games

(modifier) denoting a game or sport played on a sandlotsandlot baseball

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

Word Origin and History for sand-lot

also sandlot, "plot of empty land in a town or suburb," 1878, from sand (n.) + lot. In reference to the kind of sports or games played on them by amateurs, it is recorded from 1890, American English.