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

hollow (plural hollows)

1. A small valley between mountains.
   • c. 1710–20, Matthew Prior, The First Hymn Of Callimachus: To Jupiter

     Forests grew upon the barren hollows.

   • 1855, Alfred Tennyson, Maud

     I hate the dreadful hollow behind the little wood.

   He built himself a cabin in a hollow high up in the Rockies.
2. A sunken area or unfilled space in something solid; a cavity, natural or artificial.

   the hollow of the hand or of a tree

3. (US) A sunken area.
4. (figuratively) A feeling of emptiness.

   a hollow in the pit of one's stomach

5. An exercise in which one lies on one's back with legs and head in the air and arms in the air extended above the head ()

• German: Mulde , Senke, kleines Tal

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

• Russian: по́лость

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

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

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

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. 1596-1599, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

     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.

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

1. To call#Verb|call or urge#Verb|urge by shout#Verb|shouting; to hollo#Verb|hollo.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter IV, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume III, London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292 ↗, 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, bawdry#English|B—d—y, and Abuſe of Women and of the Government.

   • 1814. Sir Walter Scott, Waverley

     He has hollowed the hounds.

1. Alternative form of hollo