different between gash vs hollow

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æ?/
• Rhymes: -æ?

Etymology 1

Alteration of older garsh, from Middle English garsen, from Old French garser, jarsier (Modern French gercer), from Vulgar Latin *charax?re, from Ancient Greek ???????? (kharakt?r, “engraver”).

Alternative forms

• garsh (dated)

Noun

gash (countable and uncountable, plural gashes)

1. A deep cut.
   • 2006, New York Times, “Bush Mourns 9/11 at Ground Zero as N.Y. Remembers”, [1]:

     Vowing that he was “never going to forget the lessons of that day,” President Bush paid tribute last night to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, laying wreaths at ground zero, attending a prayer service at St. Paul’s Chapel and making a surprise stop at a firehouse and a memorial museum overlooking the vast gash in the ground where the twin towers once stood.

2. (slang, vulgar) A vulva.
   • 1959, William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, 50th anniversary edition (2009), p. 126:

     “Oh Gertie it’s true. It’s all true. They’ve got a horrid gash instead of a thrilling thing.”

3. (slang, offensive) A woman
   • 1934, James T. Farrell, The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan, Ch. 19:

     "Will you bastards quit singing the blues? You're young, and there's plenty of gash in the world, and the supply of moon goes on forever," Simonsky said.

4. (slang, British Royal Navy) Rubbish, spare kit
5. (slang) Rubbish on board an aircraft
6. (slang) Unused film or sound during film editing
7. (slang) Poor quality beer, usually watered down.

Translations

Adjective

gash (comparative more gash, superlative most gash)

1. (slang) Of poor quality; makeshift; improvised; temporary; substituted.

Verb

gash (third-person singular simple present gashes, present participle gashing, simple past and past participle gashed)

1. To make a deep, long cut; to slash.

Translations

Etymology 2

From ghastful, by association with gash.

Adjective

gash (comparative more gash, superlative most gash)

1. (Britain, Scotland, dialect) ghastly; hideous

Related terms

• gashful
• gashly

Anagrams

• HAGS, hags, shag

English

Alternative forms

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?h?l.??/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?h?.lo?/
  • (Southern American English, Appalachia) IPA^(key): /h?l?/
• Rhymes: -?l??

Etymology 1

From Middle English holow, holowe, holwe, holw?, holgh, from Old English holh (“a hollow”), from Proto-Germanic *halhwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *?el?wos. Cognate with Old High German huliwa and hulwa, Middle High German hülwe. Perhaps related to hole.

Noun

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.
2. A sunken area or unfilled space in something solid; a cavity, natural or artificial.

3. (figuratively) A feeling of emptiness.

4. (US) A sunken area.

Translations

Verb

hollow (third-person singular simple present hollows, present participle hollowing, simple past and past participle hollowed)

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

Etymology 2

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

Adjective

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.
   • 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

Derived terms

• hollow leg

Translations

Adverb

hollow (not comparable)

1. (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)

1. To call or urge by shouting; to hollo.
   • 1814. Sir Walter Scott, Waverley

     He has hollowed the hounds.

Interjection

hollow

1. Alternative form of hollo

References

• hollow in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.