# hollow
## English
### Alternative forms

* hallow
* holler (nonstandard: dialectal, especially Southern US)

### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ˈhɒl.əʊ/
* (US) IPA: /ˈhɑ.loʊ/
** Audio (US):(file)
** (Southern US, Appalachia) IPA: /ˈhɑlɚ/
* Rhymes: -ɒləʊ

### Etymology 1

From Middle English holow, holowe, holwe, holwȝ, holgh, from Old English holh (“a hollow”), from Proto-West Germanic *holh, from Proto-Germanic *hulhwą, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *ḱólḱwos. (Can this etymology be sourced?) Cognate with Old High German huliwa and hulwa, Middle High German hülwe. Related to hole.

#### Noun

hollow (plural hollows)
* (geography) 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[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, 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, 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 on a surface.
    the hollow of the hand
* An unfilled space in something solid; a cavity, natural or artificial.
    a hollow in a tree trunk
* (figuratively) A feeling of emptiness.
    a hollow in the pit of one’s stomach

##### Derived terms

* frost hollow
* hollow of the knee
* Sleepy Hollow
* tree hollow

##### Translations
#### Verb

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

##### Derived terms

* hollow out

### Etymology 2

From Middle English holowe, holwe, holuȝ, holgh, from the noun (see above).

#### Adjective

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. 1596–1598 (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):To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow
* (gymnastics) Pertaining to hollow body position
* (oenology) Synonym of empty (“lacking between the onset of tasting and the finish”)
** 2002, Robert M. Parker (Jr.), Pierre-Antoine Rovani, Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide (page 175)
    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.

##### Derived terms

* all hollow
* hollow block
* hollow body
* hollow book
* hollow earther
* hollow-eyed
* hollow-faced bat
* hollow-fiber
* hollow-fibre
* hollow-hearted
* hollow-heartedly
* hollow-heartedness
* hollow leg
* hollow point
* hollow position
* hollow post mill
* hollow rail
* hollow sprint
* hollow victory
* ring hollow

##### Translations
#### Adverb

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

### Etymology 3

Compare holler.

#### Verb

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, 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 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:He has hollowed the hounds.

#### Interjection

hollow
* Alternative form of hollo

### References

* “hollow”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.