hollow
Americanadjective
-
hollower,
comparative
-
hollowest
superlative
-
having a space or cavity inside; not solid; empty.
a hollow sphere.
-
having a depression or concavity.
a hollow surface.
-
sunken, as the cheeks or eyes.
-
(of sound) not resonant; dull, muffled, or deep.
a hollow voice.
-
without real or significant worth; meaningless.
a hollow victory.
-
insincere or false.
hollow compliments.
-
hungry; having an empty feeling.
I feel absolutely hollow, so let's eat.
noun
-
hollows
plural
-
an empty space within anything; a hole, depression, or cavity.
-
a valley.
They took the sheep to graze in the hollow.
-
Foundry. a concavity connecting two surfaces otherwise intersecting at an obtuse angle.
verb (used with object)
-
hollows,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hollowed,
past participle, past
-
hollowing
present participle
-
to make hollow (often followed byout ).
to hollow out a log.
-
to form by making something hollow (often followed byout ).
to hollow a place in the sand;
boats hollowed out of logs.
verb (used without object)
-
hollows,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hollowed,
past participle, past
-
hollowing
present participle
adverb
idioms
adjective
-
having a hole, cavity, or space within; not solid
-
having a sunken area; concave
-
recessed or deeply set
hollow cheeks
-
(of sounds) as if resounding in a hollow place
-
without substance or validity
-
hungry or empty
-
insincere; cynical
-
the capacity to eat or drink a lot without ill effects
adverb
noun
-
a cavity, opening, or space in or within something
-
a depression or dip in the land
verb
-
to make or become hollow
-
to form (a hole, cavity, etc) or (of a hole, etc) to be formed
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
hollowsimple
-
hollowssimple
-
have hollowedperfect
-
has hollowedperfect
-
am hollowingprogressive
-
are hollowingprogressive
-
is hollowingprogressive
-
have been hollowingperfect progressive
-
has been hollowingperfect progressive
Past
-
hollowedsimple
-
had hollowedperfect
-
was hollowingprogressive
-
were hollowingprogressive
-
had been hollowingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hollow
First recorded before 900; Middle English holow, holw(e), Old English holh “a hollow place”; akin to hole
Explanation
If something is hollow, it is empty on the inside. A chocolate Easter bunny looks like so much chocolate until you realize that it is hollow and quickly eaten. The idea of emptiness is apparent in the other uses for hollow too. A valley between mountains is called a hollow and if you're really thin, you may have hollow cheeks. Things like words and promises are hollow if the person uttering them does not intend to keep them. And a hollow victory is not very satisfying, as it means that you have reached your goal, but lost something more important along the way.
Vocabulary lists containing hollow
The SAT: Words to Capture Tone, List 5
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The New SAT: Words to Capture Tone
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Excerpt from "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But his pleas for personal trust ring hollow.
From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2026
The line is like Nolan nudging his audience to say, check this out: a human pyramid of Greek commandos packed into a dark hollow.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
"Now they tell me he will be gone -- my heart feels hollow."
From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026
Nesting inside the hollow bones of larger animals may also have helped shield their eggs from predators such as wasps.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026
Everything inside me felt shriveled up and hollow, like a dead tree.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
Some create burrows in the ground, others use cavities in wood such as tree hollows or fallen branches, and some nest inside plant stems or small existing holes in twigs.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 18, 2026
To avoid the merger trap of cutting so deep it hollows out the brand—the Kraft Heinz merger is the cautionary tale—management plans to plow $100 million of the savings back into marketing and innovation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026
The second species is the ring-tailed glider, and just like its Australian cousin the greater glider, it lives in the hollows of tall trees.
From BBC ● Mar. 6, 2026
A nation that teaches fear as a civic virtue hollows itself out from within.
From Salon ● Dec. 21, 2025
Then something terrible occurred to me: what if this wasn’t a fear of heights I was feeling—but of hollows?
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
That promise, insincere from the start, looks hollower every day.
From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2025
It’s hollower than a tweet asking for thoughts and prayers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 15, 2025
Were the words that the cast spoke and sung hollower than they’d been 2½ weeks ago?
From Washington Post ● Jun. 26, 2022
Itgen isn’t sure why larger genomes lead to hollower hearts.
From Scientific American ● Feb. 2, 2022
Then the clicking of its spikes against the stone suddenly turned into a deeper, hollower sound.
From "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner
In a world sorely lacking global leadership, champions of human rights stand poised to earn only the hollowest of victories.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 20, 2018
Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey was nominated for the presidential race, but it was the hollowest of victories.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 27, 2018
The Clerk read the act of accusation; it was the hollowest sham the Court had ever heard so far.
From The Gods are Athirst by Jackson, Emilie
Folk had picked one or the other to win freakishly—on hunches of all sorts, tips of all manners, pure fancy, or “inside information” of the hollowest sort.
From Ainslee's, Vol. 15, No. 5, June 1905 by Various
"Myself, arch-traitor to myself; My hollowest friend, my deadliest foe, My clog whatever road I go."
From The Marriage of William Ashe by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said town centres had been "hollowed out" by decades of decline and "for many people, the high streets they grew up with have become unrecognisable".
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
To be sure, it isn’t 1776 or 1976; it’s 2026 and the U.S. has seen its manufacturing base hollowed out.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
Second, it hollowed out Congress’ power to enforce our constitutional promise of racial equality at the polls, insisting that Congress lacked the power to do more than prohibit purposeful racial discrimination.
From Slate ● Jul. 8, 2026
"Wall cabinets, sofas, coffee tables, dining tables, and chairs vanished in an instant. It was as if the entire building had been hollowed out," Wang told the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald.
From Barron's ● Jul. 7, 2026
We were, in effect, climbing through the hollowed center of a gigantic ice cube.
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
“There’s essentially a hollowing out of the middle,” said Jared Walczak, senior fellow at the Tax Foundation.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 5, 2026
L.A.’s declining share of a contracting film and television industry is hollowing out its middle class, a group Pratt rarely talks about when homelessness is not at issue.
From Slate ● Jun. 3, 2026
But opaque AI loans and excessive leverage — ‘credit termites’ — are hollowing out the economy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
Along Egypt's Mediterranean coast, the oldest tram in Africa and the Middle East rumbles for a final few weeks before its removal -- the latest urban upheaval Alexandrians say is hollowing out their city's identity.
From Barron's ● Feb. 25, 2026
Everybody was whooping and hollowing and I kicked my legs to get down but I couldn’t because Mama had a hold of me so tight it was hurting my arm.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
