sunbelt

noun

1. (US)An area or belt of land that receives a lot of sun; specifically, a zone comprising the southern and western states of the USA where the weather is typically sunny, characterised by an influx of population from the north and often typified as having conservative political views.

   “Anglos to whom I talked in Miami […] persisted in the related illusions that the city was small, manageable, prosperous in a predictable broad-based way, southern in a progressive sunbelt way, American, and belonged to them.”

   “Lack of water, fertile land, productive mines, and heavy industry made it an unlikely candidate. But the same forces which forged the new west and lured millions of people to the sunbelt, also boosted Las Vegas.”

2. (alt-of)Alternative letter-case form of sunbelt.

   “After all, Richmond—the capital of Virginia—is much closer to New York City in terms of mileage than it is to Atlanta, Georgia, the city on the East Coast most widely considered to be quintessentially Sunbelt.”