vacant lot
19
2.8
- noun
- /ˈveɪkənt lɑt/
- US
:
terreno baldío
- The children played soccer on the vacant lot that used to have a small grocery store.
- garbage on a vacant lot
And so we would take these walks and we were in a vacant lot that was, you know, kind of wooded.
- And so we would take these walks and we were in a vacant lot that was, you know, kind of wooded.
- Well, you, because I know agents get asked especially for vacant lots.
Examples
-
But when she asked them to help clean up the vacant lot, no one volunteered.
Fiction book (1997) -
At twelve thirty-five, the moon appears over the vacant lot, silent and critical, white and cool.
Fiction book (1990) -
Today, we are standing on a vacant lot.
-
This is the vacant lot where I got my first kiss.
-
How come you got that vacant lot there?
-
I hung around the vacant lot and waited for someone to show up to play ball.
Fiction book (1991) -
Of course, it isn't a vacant lot anymore.
-
There's a vacant lot down there.
-
An old sofa squatted sadly in the vacant lot on the corner.
Fiction book (1997) -
We're standing in a vacant lot behind her apartment, where I've parked my dusty Chrysler.
Fiction book (1999)
Antonyms
How Developed
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is transparently composed from 'vacant' (unoccupied) + 'lot' (a piece of land), so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to an unoccupied piece of land. This is a straightforward, compositional noun phrase with direct cross-linguistic parallels, so a B1 learner would readily understand it from the constituents and context.
Etymology
Vacant lot comes from the words vacant meaning 'empty' and lot meaning 'a small area of land'. Imagine an empty patch between buildings with nothing on it, so it means 'a piece of land with no buildings'.