noun plural. Barren land characterized by roughly eroded ridges, peaks, and mesas.

Barren regions, especially in the western United States, where horizontal strata (Tertiary deposits) have been often eroded into fantastic forms, and much intersected by cañons, and where lack of wood, water, and forage increases the difficulty of traversing the country, whence the name, first given by the Canadian French, Mauvaises Terres (bad lands).

noun. An arid terrain characterized by severe erosion of sedimentary rocks.

noun. an eroded and barren region in southwestern South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska

noun. an eroded and barren region in southwestern South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska

noun. deeply eroded barren land

"On the wall next to the door, instead of a nameplate, there was an ink and pen drawing, two inches by three inches, of a small piece of the U.S. map, with the word badlands written in the middle."