• (British) IPA: /ˈhɒl.əʊ/
• (America) IPA: /ˈhɑ.loʊ/
  • (Southern US, Appalachia) IPA: /ˈhɑlɚ/

From Middle English holow, holowe, holwe, holwȝ, holgh, from Old English holh, from Proto-West Germanic *holh, from Proto-Germanic *hulhwą, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European .

hollow (plural hollows)

1. (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.'

2. A sunken area on a surface.

   the hollow of the 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

• French: val, vallon
• German: Mulde, Senke, kleines Tal

• German: Höhle, Mulde, Kuhle, Vertiefung
• Italian: cavità
• Portuguese: depressão, caivanca
• Russian: впа́дина
• Spanish: depresión, hondonada

• French: creux
• German: Loch
• Portuguese: oco
• Russian: (in a tree) дупло́
• Spanish: hueco

• Portuguese: vazio
• Russian: пустота́
• Spanish: hueco, vacío

hollow (hollows, present participle hollowing; simple past and past participle hollowed)

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

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

hollow (comparative hollower, superlative hollowest)

1. (of something solid) Having an empty space or cavity inside.

   a hollow tree; a hollow sphere

2. (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:

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

   a hollow victory

4. (figuratively) Insincere, devoid of validity; specious.

   a hollow promise

5. 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

6. (gymnastics) Pertaining to hollow body position

• French: vide, creux
• German: hohl
• Italian: cavo
• Portuguese: vazio, oco
• Russian: по́лый
• Spanish: hueco, ahuecado, hundido

• Russian: глухо́й
• Spanish: resonante, sordo

• French: insignifiant, creux
• Italian: vacuo
• Portuguese: vão
• Russian: пусто́й
• Spanish: hueco, falso

hollow (not comparable)

1. (colloquial) Completely, as part of the phrase beat hollow or beat all hollow.

Compare holler.

hollow (hollows, present participle hollowing; simple past and past participle hollowed)

1. 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 6, [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.

1. Alternative form of hollo