different between hollow vs hollowing

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?h?l????/

Verb

hollowing

1. present participle of hollow

Noun

hollowing (plural hollowings)

1. The act of one who hollows; a cry or shout.
   • 1819, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, Travels in Nubia

     At length, about three o'clock in the morning, we heard the distant hollowings of our watermen, and soon after refreshed ourselves with copious draughts of the delicious water of the Nile.