Dawn's late breaking in the desert (9)
I believe the answer is:
wasteland
'desert' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'dawn's late breaking' is the wordplay.
'breaking' is an anagram indicator.
'dawns'+'late'='dawnslate'
'dawnslate' anagrammed gives 'WASTELAND'.
'in the' is the link.
(Other definitions for wasteland that I've seen before include "Barren region" , "Useless tract" , "(T. S. Eliot's) desert" , "area devoid of vegetation" , "gave title to poet" .)