rust belt

Meanings

1. 1nounsingularAmerican

   The northeastern and midwestern United States area where factories and steel mills closed, leaving declining towns and lost jobs.

   Grammar: Used with the: the Rust Belt. It is a singular name for the region.

   Patterns

   • the Rust Belt states
   • a town in the Rust Belt

   He grew up in a Rust Belt town where the steel mill had closed.

   Candidates often visit the Rust Belt to talk about jobs.

   Many Rust Belt cities are now trying to attract technology firms.

2. 2nouncountablefigurative

   Any region in a country where older heavy industry has shrunk, leaving unemployment and empty factories.

   Grammar: Countable in this wider sense: Europe also has its own rust belts.

   Patterns

   • a rust belt region

   Parts of northern England were described as a rust belt after the mines closed.

   Planners hope to revive the rust belt around the old port.

Word forms

Common combinations

Rust Belt city

Pittsburgh is often called a Rust Belt city that reinvented itself.

Rust Belt voters

Rust Belt voters can decide close elections.

Rust Belt economy

The Rust Belt economy has shifted toward healthcare.

Rust Belt towns

Many Rust Belt towns lost population.

Synonyms and how they differ

industrial heartland

Industrial heartland is neutral or positive and describes a region of factories, not its decline.

deindustrialized region

Deindustrialized region is a formal, technical term for the same decline without the nickname's image.

Opposites

Word family

rust noun

the orange-brown layer on corroded iron

rusty adjective

covered in rust

belt noun

a long area of land with a shared feature

Commonly confused: rust belt or Sun Belt?

Practice

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