hollow
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
PronunciationEdit
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈhɒl.əʊ/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈhɑ.loʊ/
Audio (US) (file) - (Southern American English, Appalachia) IPA(key): /hɑlɚ/
- Rhymes: -ɒləʊ
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English holow, holowe, holwe, holwȝ, holgh, from Old English holh (“a hollow”), from Proto-Germanic *halhwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱelḱwos. Cognate with Old High German huliwa and hulwa, Middle High German hülwe. Perhaps related to hole.
NounEdit
hollow (plural hollows)
- 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.
- 1820 March 5, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number VI, New York, N.Y.: […] C. S. Van Winkle, […], OCLC 1090970992, pages 110–111:
- 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.
- 1855, Alfred Tennyson, “Maud”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], OCLC 1013215631, part I, stanza 1, page 1:
- 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.'
- A sunken area or unfilled space in something solid; a cavity, natural or artificial.
- the hollow of the hand or of a tree
- (figuratively) A feeling of emptiness.
- a hollow in the pit of one’s stomach
- (US) A sunken area.
TranslationsEdit
small valley
sunken area
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unfilled space in something solid; a cavity — See also translations at hole
feeling of emptiness
VerbEdit
hollow (third-person singular simple present hollows, present participle hollowing, simple past and past participle hollowed)
- (transitive) to make a hole in something; to excavate
Etymology 2Edit
From Middle English holowe, holwe, holuȝ, holgh, from the noun (see above).
AdjectiveEdit
hollow (comparative hollower, superlative hollowest)
- (of something solid) Having an empty space or cavity inside.
- a hollow tree; a hollow sphere
- (of a sound) Distant, eerie; echoing, reverberating, as if in a hollow space; dull, muffled; often low-pitched.
- He let out a hollow moan.
- 1903, George Gordon Byron, On Leaving Newstead Abbey
- Through thy battlements, Newstead, the hollow winds whistle:
- (figuratively) Without substance; having no real or significant worth; meaningless.
- a hollow victory
- (figuratively) Insincere, devoid of validity; specious.
- a hollow promise
- Concave; gaunt; sunken.
- c. 1596-1599, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
- To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow
- c. 1596-1599, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
- (gymnastics) Pertaining to hollow body position
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
having an empty space inside
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echoing, reverberating, as if in a hollow space
without substance
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AdverbEdit
hollow (not comparable)
- (colloquial) Completely, as part of the phrase beat hollow or beat all hollow.
Etymology 3Edit
Compare holler.
VerbEdit
hollow (third-person singular simple present hollows, present participle hollowing, simple past and past participle hollowed)
- To call or urge by shouting; to hollo.
- 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter IV, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar […], OCLC 928184292, book VII, page 26:
- [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.
- 1814. Sir Walter Scott, Waverley
- He has hollowed the hounds.
InterjectionEdit
hollow
- Alternative form of hollo
ReferencesEdit
- hollow in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.