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scabland

American  
[skab-land] / ˈskæbˌlænd /

noun

Physical Geography.

  1. rough, barren, volcanic topography with thin soils and little vegetation.

Etymology

Origin of scabland

An Americanism dating back to 1920–25; scab + land

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

It is 150 miles north by car from Las Vegas, in a vast expanse of utterly empty scabland, desert and mountain, and signs reading “No gas station next 150 miles.”

From New York Times • Aug. 23, 2013

It took two days to cross that ashen scabland.

From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

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.