high country

English

Noun

high country (uncountable)

1. Terrain that is at a relatively high elevation — generally, higher than foothills but not above the timberline — consisting of mountainous areas or elevated expanses of plain.
   • 1907, Stewart Edward White, chapter 13, in Arizona Nights:

     We had topped the high country, too, and had started down the other side of the mountains that ran out on the promontory.

   • 1915, Joseph A. Altsheler, chapter 13, in The Rock of Chickamauga:

     While Lookout Mountain was the loftiest summit, some of the other ridges rose almost as high. . . . September had now come and the winds were growing crisper in the high country.

   • 2001 August 6, Curt Eidem, “Letters: The War over the West”, in Time:

     I grew up in Washington State, and have hiked the high country since I was a boy scout in the '60s.

Usage notes

• Used especially to refer to certain Western regions of the U.S. and Canada, and also parts of the Australian state of Victoria.

See also

• highlands
• plateau
• upland

References

• “high country”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.