Meanings
plural gibber plains
- AustraliaA large desert pavement.
Gibber plains are often covered with a very open low shrubland (see below).
1984, Ken Simpson, Nicolas Day, The Birds of Australia: A Book of Identification: 758 Birds in Colour, page 2782 more examples
We were to learn also, as we approached Bedourie and Sandringham, that to the east the Simpson Desert is bounded by stony desert or Gibber plain, which interdigitates with the sandhill-claypan country.
2009, Richard Macmillen, Barbara Macmillen, Meandering in the Bush, page 192011, Julie E. Laity, 9: Pavements and stone mantles, David S. G. Thomas (editor), Arid Zone Geomorphology: Process, Form and Change in Drylands, unnumbered page, Gibber plains vary in character according to local sources of bedrock, with limestone gibbers, for example, adjacent to the northern Flinders Ranges (Twidale, 1994) and silcrete gibbers mantling a deflated surface in the Sturt Stony Desert (Thomas, Clarke and Pain, 2005).
Synonyms: stony desert, stony mantle
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA large desert pavement.
Origin
From gibber (“stone”) + plain.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
gibber plain. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gibber%20plain
“gibber plain.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gibber%20plain. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gibber plain,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gibber%20plain.
Source: gibber plain on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.