Idiom request for describing an uncrowded or a deserted place

Question

Is there any idiom for describing an uncrowded/ a deserted place? ( I mean a place with few or no people in there.)

We say in Persian :

" not a single bird is/ was flying (there)". ( i.e. There is/ was so uncrowded/ vacant or empty/ deserted.)

Like in :

1- Yesterday I went to the movie theater but not a single bird was flying there in that time; actually I was the only audience!

2- My friend had invited me for dinner, when I arrived the main street, I noticed that not a single bird was flying there; it was so scary that I ran towards my friend's apartment hastily.

I have found "ghost town" for describing a town with few or no habitants, but I'm looking for an idiom or expression that could be used for describing other uncrowded/deserted places too.

Answer 1

I think the equivalent idiom in English would be to say not a soul was there. At least that would be the case in Britain.

I went to the cinema and, apart from me, there wasn't a soul there.

In the main street, there wasn't a soul. It was so scary.

And thanks to the comment of @ Preetie Sekhon, I have remembered it would be even more idiomatic to say, as regards the street. and there wasn't a soul to be seen. That doesn't work quite so well with the cinema, however. But @Elian's example of there wasn't a living soul would perhaps fit with either.

Answer 2

"ghost town," is really the most common way to express the sentiment, I would say 90% of the time I've heard the idiom in practice it was NOT referring specifically to an actual town.

Answer 3

One reasonably common and well understood comparison for a deserted place - if it's a place that one might expect to be busy, and in British English at least - is the Mary Celeste:

So many people were off sick yesterday, the office was like the Mary Celeste!

or

I was expecting the cinema to be packed on a Friday night, but it was like the Mary Celeste in there.

As the Wikipedia article notes, the name is often misreported as the "Marie" Celeste.

Answer 4

You could simply say that it was dead in there

(Of a place or time) characterized by a lack of activity or excitement:

Answer 5

You might consider,

(ain't) nobody/no one here but us chickens

Q: What is the origin of the phrase “just us chickens”?

A: The closest I can come is a reference in the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang. Supposedly “Nobody here but us chickens” was the punchline of a joke about a chicken thief who is surprised in the act by the farmer. (The reference book doesn’t go into detail, but I would guess the farmer says something like “Who’s there?”) Later the punchline alone became a jocular catch-phrase.

Grammarphobia

"Nobody here but us chickens,” the old woman said with a chuckle.

Youth and Other Science Fiction Stories

hardly a packed house

Even though it was a late lunch and hardly a packed house, it was nice to have friendly and prompt service.

BarSmart

just me and the four walls; just me and the streetlights; just me and the lamppost

"It was just me and the lamppost all evening, waiting for Dad "

The Penguin Man

Yesterday I went to the movie theater but there was just me and the four walls in there.

My friend had invited me to dinner. When I hit the main street, I realized that there was just me and the streetlights/twilight; it was so scary that I hastily ran toward my friend's apartment.

Answer 6

If you want to emphasize the sense of being cut off from other people more so than the physical observation that no one is around, then we have "in a vacuum".

in a vacuum: without any connection to other people or events These kids are growing up in a vacuum, without any guidance from their parents or anyone else.

in a vacuum. (n.d.) Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms. (2006). Retrieved April 14 2016 from http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/in+a+vacuum

This stunned Aubry, who stated that after receiving national acclaim, the reception at home “was like walking into a vacuum."

Leadership and Professional Development in Science Education: edited by John Wallace, John Loughran

From the Huffington Post - What I Learned About Life By Visiting the 9/11 Memorial 09/11/2014 04:15 pm ET | Updated Nov 11, 2014

I was overwhelmed by unbridled passion, movement, energy, and emotion from the moment I stepped foot off of the plane in NYC.

I had never experienced anything quite like it.

People moving, things happening, laughs being had, shouting people, honking cars, running to catch a ferry, walking at running pace on the sidewalks, it was pure energy. [...]

It was like walking into a vacuum, taking the steps through security around the tarp-covered chain-link fence surrounding the memorial. I was holding my girlfriend’s hand tight, drinking my coffee with the other hand, my stomach was sinking, I couldn’t hear anything — there was nothing to be heard. [...]

The “Heart of NYC” as I thought it was — the energy, the movement, the noise — was gone. The memorial was silent as the grave. It was a line of respect. The passion wasn’t gone, the emotion didn’t drop. It was stronger than ever. The roar that I had come to love of NYC was diminished to a faint whisper. A whisper of wind rushing through the trees surrounding beautiful stone waterfalls, cascading into the epicenter where havoc and destruction was had that day.

Answer 7

Desert Island

Definition:

A remote tropical island, typically an uninhabited one.

Example use in a sentence (1):

The cinema was like a desert island.

Example use in a sentence (2):

Carwyn seemed like a castaway on a desert island.

Source for definition and 2 example sentence: Google

Answer 8

Though not technically an idiom, the word "barren" or the phrase "like a void" is one that gets thrown around down my way on occasion (South-West England)

Answer 9

You could say it was in the middle of nowhere.

According to Google, it means:

a place that is remote and isolated.

According to Idioms by The Free Dictionary, it means:

in a very remote place.

Answer 10

How about, “The place was tumbleweeds.”?

Answer 11

"Wasteland" actually refers to this accurately. It's used all the time in apocalyptic fiction, to refer to the world in general, ie the barren landscapes out away from (what used to be) civilization, and while it is sometimes used to describe the ruined cities, such as "Capitol Wasteland" in Fallout 3, that's incorrect, as they're something else. But in that genre, it's almost, kind of, an acceptable break from reality, because of the genre's trappings. You shouldn't though.

"Population: one" is often thrown around in stories where a loner lives or comes across a place that's abandoned. (that gives me an idea for a lone character's abode...)

Related to wastelands: you can also have "cultural" or "moral" wastelands. Not strictly speaking ruined cities and desolate wastes, but rather a culture that doesn't have culture, or morals, or anything that consensus agrees is "good and wholesome". Like hookup culture, as seen negatively by traditionalist hopeless-romantic types.

"Graveyard" or "junk yard" may be applicable.

"Population bankrupt" just came to me. Not sure that's any good, though...

In Australia, we refer to middle-of-nowhere places by names like "The Boonies" or "Whoop Whoop" which just sounds silly, but it's what the natives call them, so it's very insensitive to devalue the native population. ("Colonialism is bad" was the thrust of many of my cultural studies classes in college). "Out in the sticks" is Australian, but could very well work in the more desert-ly places in America. Mexico of course has it's own connotations, but we're kinda like it in a way to many Americans and English (or at least we all like to joke that it is).

Answer 12

As applied to a gathering such as a conference or trade show: "The place was so empty you could roll a bowling ball down the aisles without hitting anyone".

Answer 13

This place is dead, that is normally what I would use.