empty
adjEtymology
From Middle English emty, amty, from Old English ǣmtiġ, ǣmettiġ (“vacant, empty, free, idle, unmarried”, literally “without must or obligation, leisurely”), from Proto-Germanic *uz- (“out”) + Proto-Germanic *mōtijô, *mōtô (“must, obligation, need”), *mōtiþô (“ability, accommodation”), from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“measure; to acquire, possess, be in command”). Related to Old English ġeǣmtigian (“to empty”), ǣmetta (“leisure”), mōtan (“can, to be allowed”). More at mote, meet. The interconsonantal excrescent p is a euphonic insertion dating from Middle English.
Definitions
Devoid of content
Devoid of content; containing nothing or nobody; vacant.
- an empty purse
- an empty jug
- an empty stomach
Containing no elements (as of a string, array, or set), opposed to being null (having no…
Containing no elements (as of a string, array, or set), opposed to being null (having no valid value).
Free
Free; clear; devoid; often with of.
- And I ſhal finde you emptie of that fault, Right ioyfull of your reformation.
- For that fair femal Troop thou sawst, that seemd Of Goddesses, so blithe, so smooth, so gay, Yet empty of all good wherein consists Womans domestic honour and chief praise;
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Having nothing to carry, emptyhanded
Having nothing to carry, emptyhanded; unburdened.
- I hope our Ladies treaſure and our owne, May ſerue for ranſome to our liberties: Returne our Mules and emptie Camels backe, That we may trauell into Siria, […]
- I hope it remaines not vnkindly with your Lordſhip, that I return'd you an empty Meſſenger.
- And I will giue this people fauour in the sight of the Egyptians, and it shall come to passe that when ye goe, ye shall not goe empty:
Destitute of effect, sincerity, or sense
Destitute of effect, sincerity, or sense; said of language.
- empty words, or threats
- empty offer
- empty promises
Unable to satisfy
Unable to satisfy; hollow; vain.
- empty pleasures
- Ev'n I more sweetly pass my careless days, Pleas'd in the silent shade with empty praise;
Destitute of reality, or real existence
Destitute of reality, or real existence; unsubstantial.
- empty dreams
Destitute of, or lacking, sense, knowledge, or courtesy.
- empty brains
- an empty coxcomb
- Art thou thus bolden'd man by thy diſtres? Or elſe a rude deſpiſer of good manners, That in ciuility thou ſeem'ſt ſo emptie?
Not pregnant
Not pregnant; not producing offspring when expected to do so during the breeding season.
- Empty cow rates have increased in recent years.
Producing nothing
Producing nothing; unfruitful.
- an empty vine
- […] and the seuen emptie eares blasted with the East wind[…]
Hungry.
Lacking between the onset of tasting and the finish.
- Grotesquely vegetal, excessively oaked, empty wines were routinely produced in the mid-1980s. Since the late 1980s, however, the quality has soared.
To make empty
To make empty; to remove the contents of.
- to empty a well or a cistern
- The cinema emptied quickly after the end of the film.
- The suspected thief was requested to empty her pockets.
Of a river, duct, etc
Of a river, duct, etc: to drain or flow toward an ultimate destination.
- Salmon River empties on the W shore about 2 miles below Bear River.
- Of these the Rhine empties into the Northern ocean and the Danube into the Euxine.
A container, especially a bottle, whose contents have been used up, leaving it empty.
- Put the empties out to be recycled.
- A shaft runround was made to conduct the empties from the tippler to the empty side of the shaft where they would rejoin the old circuit.
The neighborhood
- synonymempty
- synonymempty as a pauper's purse
- synonymempty as the tomb on Easter
- synonymclean
- synonymleer
- synonymtoom
- synonymunfilled
- synonymvacant
- synonymvacuumlike
- synonymvacuous
- synonymvoid
- antonymcramful
- antonymcramfull
- antonymfreighted
- antonymfraught
- antonymfull
- antonymjammed
- antonymjam-packed
- antonymjam rammed
- antonymladen
- antonymloaded
- antonymnon-empty
- antonympacked
- neighbor∅
- neighbor∅-
- neighbor-∅
- neighborempty set
- neighborinsubstantial
- neighborlacking
- neighborbare
- neighborhollow
- neighborunfreighted
- neighborunfraught
- neighborunfurnished
- neighboruninhabited
Derived
emptiable, empty the clip, empty the tank, overempty, unemptied
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at empty. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at empty. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
8 hops · closes at empty
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA