hollow

plural hollows · alternative hallow · alternative Southern US dialectal especially nonstandard holler

1. geographyA small valley between mountains.

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

   4 more examples

   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.

   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[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, pages 110–111

   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.'

   1855, Alfred Tennyson, “Maud”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, part I, stanza 1, page 1

   [T]his is lonesome country; and here in the swamplike hollows where tiger lilies bloom the size of a man's head, there are luminous green logs that shine under the dark marsh water like drowned corpses ..."

   1948, Truman Capote, Other Voices, Other Rooms, Part One, 1

2. A sunken area on a surface.

   He held the chick in the hollow of his hand.

   Synonyms: depression

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

   a hollow in a tree trunk

   Synonyms: niche

4. figurativelyA feeling of emptiness.

   a hollow in the pit of one’s stomach

present singular third person hollows · participle present hollowing · participle past hollowed · past hollowed · alternative hallow · alternative Southern US dialectal especially nonstandard holler

1. transitiveto make a hole in something; to excavate

comparative hollower · superlative hollowest · alternative hallow · alternative Southern US dialectal especially nonstandard holler

1. Having an empty space or cavity inside.

   a hollow tree; a hollow sphere

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

   He let out a hollow moan.

   1 more example

   Through thy battlements, Newstead, the hollow winds whistle:

   1903, George Gordon Byron, On Leaving Newstead Abbey

3. figurativelyWithout substance; having no real or significant worth; meaningless.

   a hollow victory

4. figurativelyInsincere, devoid of validity; specious.

   a hollow promise

   1 more example

   "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.

   2011, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, Penguin Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 170

5. Concave; gaunt; sunken.

   To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

6. gymnasticsPertaining to hollow body position
7. beveragesSynonym 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.

   2002, Robert M. Parker (Jr.), Pierre-Antoine Rovani, Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide (page 175)

   Synonyms: empty

alternative hallow · alternative Southern US dialectal especially nonstandard holler

1. colloquialnot comparableCompletely, as part of the phrase beat hollow or beat all hollow.

present singular third person hollows · participle present hollowing · participle past hollowed · past hollowed · alternative hallow · alternative Southern US dialectal especially nonstandard holler

1. To call or urge by shouting; to hollo.

   He has hollowed the hounds.

   1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   [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.

   1749, Henry Fielding, chapter IV, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VII, page 26

   This made Jill pout, And she ran out, And Jack did quickly follow, They rode dog Ball, Jill got a fall How Jack did laugh and hollow.

   1810, Jack and Jill, and old Dame Gill, York: J. Kendrew, page 5

alternative hallow · alternative Southern US dialectal especially nonstandard holler

1. alternativeAlternative form of hollo.