See also: burned country
- 1832  If the burnt lands, as they are termed, were, immediately after being overun by fire, brought under cultivation, they would then be of the same value as those cleared in the usual way. . . .
- 1849  After this, commenced the most difficult country; "burnt land," that is, forest land through which a fire has passed in 1827, two years after the great fire of Miramichi.
- 1921  (1923)  It happened that François was then in the great burnt lands, where the fine snow drives and drifts so terribly.
2 land cleared for cultivation by burning off the trees and brush.
See also: brulé (def. 2)
- 1896  The great winter labour was chopping, then burn off and hoe or drag the wheat in the burnt land.
- 1952  One spring day . . . your grandfather and I were planting potatoes in the burntland.