hollow

noun

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.'”

   “[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 ..."”

2. A sunken area on a surface.

   “He held the chick in the hollow of his hand.”

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

   “a hollow in a tree trunk”

4. (figuratively)A feeling of emptiness.

   “a hollow in the pit of one’s stomach”

verb

1. (transitive)to make a hole in something; to excavate
2. 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.”

adj

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.”

   “Through thy battlements, Newstead, the hollow winds whistle:”

3. (figuratively)Without substance; having no real or significant worth; meaningless.

   “a hollow victory”

4. (figuratively)Insincere, 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. Concave; gaunt; sunken.

   “To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow”

6. Pertaining to hollow body position
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.”

adv

1. (colloquial, not-comparable)Completely, as part of the phrase beat hollow or beat all hollow.

intj

1. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of hollo.