different between hollow vs concave

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.

English

Etymology

From Middle English concave, from Old French concave, from Latin concavus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k??ke?v/

Adjective

concave (comparative more concave, superlative most concave)

1. curved like the inner surface of a sphere or bowl
2. (geometry, not comparable, of a polygon) not convex; having at least one internal angle greater than 180 degrees.
3. (functional analysis, not comparable, of a real-valued function on the reals) satisfying the property that all segments connecting two points on the function's graph lie below the function.
4. hollow; empty

Antonyms

• convex

Derived terms

• concavely
• concaveness
• concavity

Translations

Noun

concave (plural concaves)

1. A concave surface or curve.
2. The vault of the sky.
3. One of the celestial spheres of the Ptolemaic or geocentric model of the world.

   Aristotle makes [Fire] to move to the concave of the Moon. - Thomas Salusbury (1661).

4. (manufacturing) An element of a curved grid used to separate desirable material from tailings or chaff in mining and harvesting.
5. (surfing) An indentation running along the base of a surfboard, intended to increase lift.
6. (skateboarding) An indented area on the top of a skateboard, providing a position for foot placement and increasing board strength.
7. (gambling) A playing card made concave for use in cheating.

   Coordinate term: convex

Translations

Verb

concave (third-person singular simple present concaves, present participle concaving, simple past and past participle concaved)

1. To render concave, or increase the degree of concavity.

Derived terms

• concaver

Translations

French

Etymology

From Old French concave, borrowed from Latin concavus.

Adjective

concave (plural concaves)

1. concave

Descendants

• ? Turkish: konkav

Further reading

• “concave” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Italian

Adjective

concave

1. feminine plural of concavo

Latin

Adjective

concave

1. vocative masculine singular of concavus