deadlands

Noun

deadland (plural deadlands)

1. Wasteland; a desert or other place that does not support life.
   • After the feverish days over deadland trails, — The repose of the gray-veiled and quiet-eyed twilight, The shimmering haze of the blue mountain valley, And the tranquil blue deep of the pool1920, Lew Sarett, Many Many Moons: A Book of Wilderness Poems, page 46
2. A place of death; a deadly land.
   • Does the hideous famine that gnaws the entrails with fiery fangs and burns up the wrenched and tortured tissues till the land sickens with its burden of deadland dying—does that show His pity?1905, Frederick C Vernon-Harcourt, From Stage to Cross: The Record of a Rolling Stone, page 236
3. The afterlife, especially in belief systems that do not include reward or punishment such as heaven and hell.
   • I could not find out whether the victims are intoxicated before execution : it is highly probable, as the African's, and especially the Yoruban's, object is to send these messengers to deadland in the best of tempers.1866, Leone Levi, Annals of British Legislation: Digest of blue books - Volume 2, page 222