An evocative piece of American regional slang for a patch of land where nothing grows — a barren, inexplicably dead spot in an otherwise fertile field or yard. The superstitious name implies the ground was cursed or blighted by the devil's passing. Farmers and rural communities used the term for those mysterious bare circles or strips that resisted cultivation, attributing them to supernatural rather than natural causes.
There's a devil's footstep in the middle of the back field that my grandfather could never get anything to grow in, no matter what he tried.
No comments yet — say something.
(US, slang) A barren spot of land.
No comments yet — say something.
Add your own interpretation of "devil's footstep".
Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
See all Regional & Other slang on Slangora.