Adjacent Words

Hollow definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

HOL'LOW, a.
1. Containing an empty space, natural or artificial, within a solid substance; not solid; as a hollow tree; a hollow rock; a hollow sphere.
Hollow with boards shalt thou make it. Exodus 27.
2. Sunk deep in the orbit; as a hollow eye.
3. Deep; low; resembling sound reverberated from a cavity, or designating such a sound; as a hollow roar.
4. Not sincere or faithful; false; deceitful; not sound; as a hollow heart; a hollow friend.
Hollow spar, the mineral called also chiastolite.
HOL'LOW, n. A cavity, natural or artificial; any depression of surface in a body; concavity; as the hollow of the hand.
1. A place excavated; as the hollow of a tree.
2. A cave or cavern; a den; a hole; a broad open space in any thing.
3. A pit.
4. Open space of any thing; a groove; a channel; a canal.
HOL'LOW, v.t. To make hollow, as by digging, cutting, or engraving; to excavate.
Trees rudely hollowed did the waves sustain.
HOL'LOW, v.i. To shout. [See Holla and Hollo.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: not solid; having a space or gap or cavity; "a hollow wall"; "a hollow tree"; "hollow cheeks"; "his face became gaunter and more hollow with each year" [ant: solid]
2: as if echoing in a hollow space; "the hollow sound of footsteps in the empty ballroom"
3: devoid of significance or point; "empty promises"; "a hollow victory"; "vacuous comments" [syn: empty, hollow, vacuous] n
1: a cavity or space in something; "hunger had caused the hollows in their cheeks"
2: a small valley between mountains; "he built himself a cabin in a hollow high up in the Appalachians" [syn: hollow, holler]
3: a depression hollowed out of solid matter [syn: hole, hollow] v
1: remove the inner part or the core of; "the mining company wants to excavate the hillside" [syn: excavate, dig, hollow]
2: remove the interior of; "hollow out a tree trunk" [syn: hollow, hollow out, core out]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English holw, holh, from Old English holh hole, hollow — more at hole Date: before 12th century 1. an unfilled space ; cavity, hole 2. a depressed or low part of a surface; especially a small valley or basin II. adjective (hollower; hollowest) Etymology: Middle English holw, holh, from holh hole Date: 13th century 1. having an indentation or inward curve ; concave, sunken 2. having a cavity within <a hollow tree> 3. lacking in real value, sincerity, or substance ; false, meaningless <hollow promises> <a victory over a weakling is hollow and without triumph — Ernest Beaglehole> 4. reverberating like a sound made in or by beating on a large empty enclosure ; muffled Synonyms: see vain • hollowly adverb • hollowness noun III. verb Date: 15th century transitive verb 1. to make hollow 2. to form by a hollowing action — usually used with out <rain barrels hollowed out from trees — Robert Shaplen> intransitive verb to become hollow IV. adverb Date: 1601 1. so as to have a hollow sound 2. completely, thoroughly <an ongoing story that has the old cowboy-and-Indians genre beat hollow — Barbara Bannon> — often used with all

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj., n., v., & adv. --adj. 1 a having a hole or cavity inside; not solid throughout. b having a depression; sunken (hollow cheeks). 2 (of a sound) echoing, as though made in or on a hollow container. 3 empty; hungry. 4 without significance; meaningless (a hollow triumph). 5 insincere; cynical; false (a hollow laugh; hollow promises). --n. 1 a hollow place; a hole. 2 a valley; a basin. --v.tr. (often foll. by out) make hollow; excavate. --adv. colloq. completely (beaten hollow). Phrases and idioms: hollow-eyed with eyes deep sunk. hollow-hearted insincere. hollow square Mil. hist. a body of infantry drawn up in a square with a space in the middle. in the hollow of one's hand entirely subservient to one. Derivatives: hollowly adv. hollowness n. Etymology: ME holg, holu, hol(e)we f. OE holh cave, rel. to HOLE

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Hollow Hol"low, n. 1. A cavity, natural or artificial; an unfilled space within anything; a hole, a cavern; an excavation; as the hollow of the hand or of a tree. 2. A low spot surrounded by elevations; a depressed part of a surface; a concavity; a channel. Forests grew Upon the barren hollows. --Prior. I hate the dreadful hollow behind the little wood. --Tennyson.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Hollow Hol"low, a. [OE. holow, holgh, holf, AS. holh a hollow, hole. Cf. Hole.] 1. Having an empty space or cavity, natural or artificial, within a solid substance; not solid; excavated in the interior; as, a hollow tree; a hollow sphere. Hollow with boards shalt thou make it. --Ex. xxvii. 8. 2. Depressed; concave; gaunt; sunken. With hollow eye and wrinkled brow. --Shak. 3. Reverberated from a cavity, or resembling such a sound; deep; muffled; as, a hollow roar. --Dryden. 4. Not sincere or faithful; false; deceitful; not sound; as, a hollow heart; a hollow friend. --Milton. Hollow newel (Arch.), an opening in the center of a winding staircase in place of a newel post, the stairs being supported by the wall; an open newel; also, the stringpiece or rail winding around the well of such a staircase. Hollow quoin (Engin.), a pier of stone or brick made behind the lock gates of a canal, and containing a hollow or recess to receive the ends of the gates. Hollow root. (Bot.) See Moschatel. Hollow square. See Square. Hollow ware, hollow vessels; -- a trade name for cast-iron kitchen utensils, earthenware, etc. Syn: Syn.- Concave; sunken; low; vacant; empty; void; false; faithless; deceitful; treacherous.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Hollow Hol"low, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Hollowed; p. pr. & vb. n. Hollowing.] To make hollow, as by digging, cutting, or engraving; to excavate. ``Trees rudely hollowed.'' --Dryden.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Hollow Hol"low, adv. Wholly; completely; utterly; -- chiefly after the verb to beat, and often with all; as, this story beats the other all hollow. See All, adv. [Collog.] The more civilized so-called Caucasian races have beaten the Turks hollow in the struggle for existence. --Darwin.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Hollow Hol*low", interj. [See Hollo.] Hollo.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Hollow Hol"low, v. i. To shout; to hollo. Whisperings and hollowings are alike to a deaf ear. --Fuller.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Hollow Hol"low, v. t. To urge or call by shouting. He has hollowed the hounds. --Sir W. Scott.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(hollows, hollowing, hollowed) 1. Something that is hollow has a space inside it, as opposed to being solid all the way through. ...a hollow tree. ...a hollow cylinder. ADJ 2. A surface that is hollow curves inwards. He looked young, dark and sharp-featured, with hollow cheeks. ADJ 3. A hollow is a hole inside a tree. I made my home there, in the hollow of a dying elm. N-COUNT 4. A hollow is an area that is lower than the surrounding surface. Below him the town lay warm in the hollow of the hill. N-COUNT: oft N of/in/between n 5. If you describe a statement, situation, or person as hollow, you mean they have no real value, worth, or effectiveness. Any threat to bring in the police is a hollow one. ADJ: usu ADJ n • hollowness One month before the deadline we see the hollowness of these promises. N-UNCOUNT: oft N of/behind n 6. If someone gives a hollow laugh, they laugh in a way that shows that they do not really find something amusing. Murray Pick's hollow laugh had no mirth in it. ADJ: ADJ n 7. A hollow sound is dull and echoing. ...the hollow sound of a gunshot. ADJ: ADJ n 8. If something is hollowed, its surface is made to curve inwards or downwards. The mule's back was hollowed by the weight of its burden. ...her high, elegantly hollowed cheekbones. VERB: usu passive, be V-ed, V-ed

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

hol'-o (kaph, nabhabh): "Hollow" is the translation of kaph, "hollow" (Ge 32:25,32, "the hollow of his thigh," the hip-pan or socket, over the sciatic nerve); of nabhabh, "to be hollow" (Ex 27:8; 38:7; Jer 52:21); of sho`-al, "hollow" (Isa 40:12, "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand?" (in handfuls; compare 1Ki 20:10; Eze 13:19)); of makhtesh, "a mortar," "socket of a tooth" (from its shape) (Jud 15:19, "God clave an (the Revised Version (British and American) "the") hollow place that is in Lehi"); of sheqa`aruroth, probably from qa`ar, "to sink" (Le 14:37, "the walls of the house with hollow strakes," so the English Revised Version, the American Standard Revised Version "hollow streaks," depressions); of koilotes (The Wisdom of Solomon 17:19, "the hollow mountains," the Revised Version (British and American) "hollows of the mountains"); of koiloma (2 Macc 1:19, "hollow place of a pit," the Revised Version (British and American) "hollow of a well"); of antrodes (2 Macc 2:5, "a hollow cave," the Revised Version (British and American) "a chamber in the rock," margin (Greek) "a cavernous chamber").

W. L. Walker

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. a. 1. Vacant, empty, void, cavernous. 2. Insincere, treacherous, false, faithless, hypocritical, pharisaical, deceitful, false-hearted, hollow-hearted. 3. Deep, low, rumbling. II. n. 1. Depression, low spot, low place. 2. Cavity, concavity, depression, excavation, pit, hole, cave, cavern, dent, dint, dimple. 3. Groove, channel, canal. III. v. a. Excavate, scoop, dig out. IV. ad. (Colloq.) Wholly, completely, utterly, out and out, entirely, thoroughly.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

It was quiet a hollow thing; i.e. a certainty, or decided business.

Moby Thesaurus

absurd, abysm, abyss, alveolation, alveolus, antrum, aperture, apparently sound, arid, armpit, artificial, bare, baritone, barren, basin, bass, blah, bland, blank, bleached, bloodless, boat-shaped, boatlike, booth, bootless, bowl, bowl-shaped, bowllike, box, broaching, casuistic, cave, cave in, cavelike, cavern, cavernous, cavity, cell, cellule, chamber, characterless, chasm, check, clear, clearing, cleft, cold, colorable, colorless, compartment, concave, concaved, concavity, contralto, costly, counterfeit, crack, crater, craterlike, crevasse, crib, crypt, cup, cup-shaped, cupped, cymbiform, cynical, dale, dead, deceitful, deceptive, deep, deep-echoing, deep-pitched, deep-toned, deepmouthed, dell, dent, dented, depressed, depression, depth, devoid, dig out, dig up, dip, disclosure, dish, dish-shaped, dished, dishing, dishlike, dishonest, disingenuous, dismal, draggy, drearisome, dreary, dredge, dry, dryasdust, dull, dusty, effete, elephantine, empty, empty-headed, empty-minded, empty-pated, empty-skulled, enclosed space, etiolated, excavate, excavation, fade, fallacious, false, famished, fatuitous, fatuous, featureless, feigned, fenestra, fistula, flat, fold, follicle, fontanel, foramen, fraudulent, fruitless, funnel chest, funnel-breasted, funnel-chested, funnel-shaped, furrow, futile, gap, gape, gat, glen, gouge, grave, gulf, heavy, hiatus, ho-hum, hold, hole, hollow out, hollow shell, hollowed, hungry, hypocritical, idle, illusive, impression, inane, incurve, incurved, incurving, incurvous, indentation, indented, ineffective, inexcitable, infundibular, infundibuliform, inlet, insincere, insipid, interval, jejune, jesuitic, lacuna, laying open, leaden, leak, lifeless, low, low-pitched, low-spirited, manger, mealymouthed, meaningless, mendacious, muffled, navicular, naviform, null, null and void, opening, opening up, orifice, otiose, outlet, overrefined, oversubtle, pale, pallid, passageway, pedestrian, pew, philosophistic, pit, plausible, plodding, pocket, pointless, poky, ponderous, pore, profitless, punch bowl, rattlebrained, rattleheaded, ravenous, retire, retiring, retreat, retreating, reverberant, sag, saucer-shaped, scaphoid, scatterbrained, scoop, scyphate, senseless, sepulchral, shaft, sham, shell, sink, sinkage, sinkhole, sinus, slot, slow, socket, solemn, sophistic, sophistical, space, specious, spiritless, split, spoonlike, spurious, stall, starved, sterile, stiff, stodgy, stoma, stuffy, sunk, sunken, superficial, tasteless, tedious, throwing open, toneless, tongue in cheek, trough, unavailing, uncandid, uncorking, unfilled, unfrank, unlively, unprofitable, unrelieved, unserious, unstopping, vacant, vacuity, vacuous, vain, valley, valueless, vapid, vault, void, vug, well, white, with nothing inside, without content, wooden, worthless, yawn, yawning abyss