hellscape

plural hellscapes

1. A hellish landscape.

   a Dantesque hellscape

   3 more examples

   As they crossed the Western Slope toward Utah, the dark began to come down again. The setting sun threw an orange-red glare over a fragmented hellscape that none of them could look at for long; one by one, they followed Bethany's example and pulled their windowshades.

   1990, Stephen King, “The Langoliers”, in Four Past Midnight

   Mr. Butler, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain,” treats his newest novelistic conceit as an occasion to toss every possible ingredient into a fanciful hellscape and then let these elements run wild.

   2009 September 7, Janet Maslin, “News at Styx: Who’s Hot in Hades”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 31 Aug 2021

   “Traveling at near light speed, one year passed for Nik while eight years passed for Mari on Scotia. Once a thriving Celestial world, now a radioactive hellscape. Some expeditions to her harsh surface found priceless artifacts. Most found death.”

   2024 December 17, Tim Miller, “Exodus: Odyssey” (4:17 from the start), in Secret Level, season 1, episode 11, spoken by Kara Voss (Lily Cowles)

2. derogatoryfigurativelyAn exceptionally unpleasant, disagreeable, or harsh place or event.

   Miley Cyrus just got really honest about the hellscape that was "Hannah Montana"

   2015 August 14, Chris Eggertsen, “Miley Cyrus just got really honest about the hellscape that was 'Hannah Montana'”, in HitFix, archived from the original on 13 Dec 2015

   2 more examples

   Avoiding a cacophony is a worthy objective, because Australia has managed to largely sidestep the post-truth hellscape the US has endured during the pandemic because politicians, by and large, have chosen to inhabit a universe of shared facts and common messages.

   2021 February 2, Katharine Murphy, “Scott Morrison must heed the lesson of Donald Trump and slap down Craig Kelly”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 11 Apr 2021

   But, he added, “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences!”

   2022 October 27, Lauren Hirsch, quoting Elon Musk, “Elon Musk Reaches Out to Advertisers Ahead of Deadline for Twitter Deal”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2022