• IPA: /vɔɪd/

void (not comparable)

1. Containing nothing; empty; vacant; not occupied; not filled.
   • Bible, Genesis i. 2

     The earth was without form, and void.

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene iv]:

     I'll get me to a place more void.

   • I'll chain him in my study, that, at void hours, / I may run over the story of his country.

2. Having no incumbent; unoccupied; said of offices etc.

   • divers great offices that had been long void

3. Being without; destitute; devoid.
   • Bible, Proverbs xi. 12

     He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbor.

4. Not producing any effect; ineffectual; vain.
   • Bible, Isa. lv. 11

     [My word] shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please.

   • Bible, Jer. xix. 7

     I will make void the counsel of Judah.

5. Of no legal force or effect, incapable of confirmation or ratification.

   null and void

6. Containing no immaterial quality; destitute of mind or soul.
7. (computing, programming, of a function or method) That does not return a value.

• French: vide, libre
• Italian: vuoto
• Russian: пустой

• French: vacant, vide
• Italian: vuoto
• Russian: вакантный

• French: dépourvu, vide
• Italian: privo

• French: vide, vain
• Italian: vano, inutile
• Russian: тщетный

• French: nul, invalide
• German: ungültig, nichtig
• Italian: nullo, non valido
• Portuguese: nulo, inválido
• Russian: недействительный
• Spanish: nulo, inválido

• Italian: vuoto

• Italian: nullo, vuoto, non valido
• Spanish: nulo, inválido

void (plural voids)

1. An empty space; a vacuum.

   Nobody has crossed the void since one man died trying three hundred years ago; it's high time we had another go.

2. (astronomy) An extended region of space containing no galaxies
3. (materials science) A collection of adjacent vacancies inside a crystal lattice.
4. (fluid mechanics) A pocket of vapour inside a fluid flow, created by cavitation.
5. (construction) An empty space between floors or walls, including false separations and planned gaps between a building and its facade.

• ((engineering) collection of vacancies) pore
• ((engineering) pocket of vapour in fluid) bubble

• French: vide, néant
• German: Leere
• Italian: vacuo, vuoto
• Portuguese: vazio, vácuo
• Russian: пустота́
• Spanish: vacío

• German: Hohlraum (rare), Void

void (voids, present participle voiding; past and past participle voided)

1. (transitive) To make invalid or worthless.

   He voided the check and returned it.

   • It was become a practice […] to void the security that was at any time given for money so borrowed.

   • after they had voided the obligation of the oath he had taken

2. (transitive, medicine) To empty.

   void one’s bowels

3. To throw or send out; to evacuate; to emit; to discharge.

   to void excrement

   • c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals):

     You, that did void your rheum upon my beard, And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur

   • With shovel, like a fury, voided out / The earth and scattered bones.

   • a watchful application of mind in voiding prejudices

4. (intransitive, obsolete) To withdraw, depart.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/MaloryWks2/1:3.14?rgn=div2;view=fulltext chapter xvj], in Le Morte Darthur, book I:

     BY than come in to the feld kynge Ban as fyers as a lyon […] / Ha a said kyng Lot we must be discomfyte / for yonder I see the moste valyaunt knyght of the world / and the man of the most renoume / for suche ij bretheren as is kyng Ban & kyng bors ar not lyuynge / wherfore we must nedes voyde or deye

5. (transitive, obsolete) To remove the contents of; to make or leave vacant or empty; to quit; to leave.

   to void a table

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals):

     If they will fight with us, bid them come down, / Or void the field.

• (make invalid or worthless) annul, cancel
• ((medicine) to empty) evacuate

• French: annuler, résilier, révoquer
• German: löschen, annullieren
• Italian: annullare, invalidare
• Portuguese: anular, invalidar
• Russian: аннулировать
• Spanish: anular, invalidar

• German: entleeren, leeren
• Italian: svuotare
• Portuguese: esvaziar, evacuar
• Russian: опорожнять
• Spanish: evacuar

void (plural voids)

1. (now rare, historical) A voidee. [from 15th c.]
   • 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin 2012, p. 68:

     Late on the final evening, as the customary ‘void’ – spiced wine and sweetmeats – was served, more elaborate disguisings in the great hall culminated in the release of a flock of white doves.