Hollow Meaning
/ˈhɒləʊ/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA small valley between mountains.
nounA sunken area on a surface.
Sentence Examples
My life is hollow without him.
Rain formed pools in the hollow spaces on the rocks.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The old tree trunk was completely ____ inside with no solid wood.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The old tree trunk was completely ____ inside, providing a perfect home for a family of owls.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English holow, holowe, holwe, holwȝ, holgh, from Old English holh (“a hollow”), from Proto-West Germanic *holh, from Proto-Germanic *hulhwą, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *ḱólḱwos. Cognate with Old High German huliwa and hulwa, Middle High German hülwe. Related to hole.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"This road leads through a sandy hollow shaded by trees for about a quarter of a mile, where it crosses the bridge famous in goblin story, and just beyond swells the green knoll on which stands the whitewashed church."
— 1820 March 5, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number VI, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, pages 110–111:
"I hate the dreadful hollow behind the little wood, / Its lips in the field above are dabbled with blood-red heath, / The red-ribb'd hedges drip with a silent horror of blood, / And Echo there, whatever is ask'd her, answers 'Death.'"
— 1855, Alfred Tennyson, “Maud”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, part I, stanza 1, page 1:
"[T]his is lonesome country; and here in the swamplike hollows where tiger lilies bloom the size of a man's head, there are luminous green logs that shine under the dark marsh water like drowned corpses ...""
— 1948, Truman Capote, Other Voices, Other Rooms, Part One, 1:
"Through thy battlements, Newstead, the hollow winds whistle:"
— 1903, George Gordon Byron, On Leaving Newstead Abbey:
""Hey, if anything happens to that, my ass is grass," Y.T. says. She's trying to sound tough and brave, but it's a hollow act in these circumstances."
— 2011, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, Penguin Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 170:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The old tree trunk was completely ____ inside with no solid wood.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The old tree trunk was completely ____ inside, providing a perfect home for a family of owls.