empty
- containing nothing; having none of the usual or appropriate contents: an empty bottle.
- vacant; unoccupied: an empty house.
- without cargo or load: an empty wagon.
- destitute of people or human activity: We walked along the empty streets of the city at night.
- destitute of some quality or qualities; devoid (usually followed by of): Theirs is a life now empty of happiness.
- without force, effect, or significance; hollow; meaningless: empty compliments; empty pleasures.
- not employed in useful activity or work; idle: empty summer days.
- Mathematics. (of a set) containing no elements; null; void.
- hungry: I'm feeling rather empty—let's have lunch.
- without knowledge or sense; frivolous; foolish: an empty head.
- completely spent of emotion: The experience had left him with an empty heart.
- to make empty; deprive of contents; discharge the contents of: to empty a bucket.
- to discharge (contents): to empty the water out of a bucket.
- to become empty: The room emptied rapidly after the lecture.
- to discharge contents, as a river: The river empties into the sea.
- Informal. something that is empty, as a box, bottle, or can: Throw the empties into the waste bin.
Origin of empty
Synonyms for empty
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comAntonyms for empty
Related Words for emptily
desperately, sadly, dispiritedly, cynically, darkly, dejectedly, desolately, despairingly, despondently, disconsolately, dismally, emptily, gloomily, pessimisticallyExamples from the Web for emptily
Historical Examples of emptily
He looked into it with sharp scrutiny, and tapped it emptily on his open palm.
The Turtles of TasmanJack London
He's a curiously wrought cabinet full of shells and other trumpery, which were much better quite empty than so emptily filled.
History of English Humour, Vol. 2 (of 2)Alfred Guy Kingan L'Estrange
Plan after plan was brought forward and set aside for this reason or for that, till at length they stared at each other emptily.
The Lady Of BlossholmeH. Rider Haggard
To us it seems far out of focus and expressed about as emptily and unhappily as possible.
The Color LineWilliam Benjamin Smith
And then he emptily talks of the "magnificent sweep of my eloquence," and my "oratoric power."
Apologia pro Vita SuaJohn Henry Newman
empty
- containing nothing
- without inhabitants; vacant or unoccupied
- carrying no load, passengers, etc
- without purpose, substance, or valuean empty life
- insincere or trivialempty words
- not expressive or vital; vacantshe has an empty look
- informal hungry
- (postpositive foll by of) devoid; destitutea life empty of happiness
- informal drained of energy or emotionafter the violent argument he felt very empty
- maths logic (of a set or class) containing no members
- philosophy logic (of a name or description) having no reference
- to make or become empty
- (when intr, foll by into) to discharge (contents)
- (tr often foll by of) to unburden or rid (oneself)to empty oneself of emotion
- an empty container, esp a bottle
Word Origin for empty
Word Origin and History for emptily
empty
c.1200, from Old English æmettig "at leisure, not occupied, unmarried," from æmetta "leisure," from æ "not" + -metta, from motan "to have" (see might (n.)). The -p- is a euphonic insertion.
Sense evolution from "at leisure" to "empty" is paralleled in several languages, e.g. Modern Greek adeios "empty," originally "freedom from fear," from deios "fear." "The adj. adeios must have been applied first to persons who enjoyed freedom from duties, leisure, and so were unoccupied, whence it was extended to objects that were unoccupied" [Buck].
The adjective also yielded a verb (1520s), replacing Middle English empten, from Old English geæmtigian. Related: Emptied; emptying. Figurative sense of empty-nester first attested 1987. Empty-handed attested from 1610s.
Idioms and Phrases with emptily
empty
In addition to the idioms beginning with empty
- empty calories
- empty nest
- empty suit
also see:
- glass is half full (half empty)
- running on empty