hollow

noun

1. 1

   A small valley between mountains.

   He built himself a cabin in a hollow high up in the Rockies.

   c. 1710–20, Matthew Prior, The First Hymn Of Callimachus: To Jupiter Forests grew upon the barren hollows.

   This road leads through a sandy hollow shaded by trees for about a quarter of a mile, where it crosses the bridge famous in goblin story, and just beyond swells the green knoll on which stands the whitewashed church.

   I hate the dreadful hollow behind the little wood, / Its lips in the field above are dabbled with blood-red heath, / The red-ribb'd hedges drip with a silent horror of blood, / And Echo there, whatever is ask'd her, answers 'Death.'

2. 2

   A sunken area on a surface.

   He held the chick in the hollow of his hand.

3. 3

   An unfilled space in something solid; a cavity, natural or artificial.

   a hollow in a tree trunk

4. 4

   figurativeA feeling of emptiness.

   a hollow in the pit of one’s stomach

verb

1. 1

   to make a hole in something; to excavate

adjective

1. 1

   Having an empty space or cavity inside.

   a hollow tree; a hollow sphere

2. 2

   Distant, eerie; echoing, reverberating, as if in a hollow space; dull, muffled; often low-pitched.

   He let out a hollow moan.

   Through thy battlements, Newstead, the hollow winds whistle:

3. 3

   figurativeWithout substance; having no real or significant worth; meaningless.

   a hollow victory

4. 4

   figurativeInsincere, devoid of validity; specious.

   a hollow promise

   "Hey, if anything happens to that, my ass is grass," Y.T. says. She's trying to sound tough and brave, but it's a hollow act in these circumstances.

5. 5

   Concave; gaunt; sunken.

   To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow

6. 6

   Pertaining to hollow body position

7. 7

   Synonym of empty (“lacking between the onset of tasting and the finish”).

   While most 1974s remain hard, tannic, hollow wines lacking ripeness, flesh, and character, a number of the Graves estates did produce surprisingly spicy, interesting wines.

adverb

1. 1

   Completely, as part of the phrase beat hollow or beat all hollow.

verb

1. 1

   To call or urge by shouting; to hollo.

   [T]he Converſation (if it may be called ſo) was ſeldom ſuch as could entertain a Lady. It conſiſted chiefly of Hollowing, Singing, Relations of ſporting Adventures, B—d—y, and Abuſe of Women and of the Government.

   He has hollowed the hounds.

interjection

1. 1

   Variant of holloAlternative form of hollo.

Forms

plural

hollows

comparative

hollower

superlative

hollowest

past tense

hollowed

past participle

hollowed

present participle

hollowing

third person singular

hollows