empty

empty adj

1 Empty, vacant, blank, void, vacuous mean lacking the contents that could or should be present.

Something is empty which has nothing in it; something is vacant which is without an occupant, incumbent, tenant, inmate, or the person or thing it appropriately contains

{

an empty bucket

}

{

his purse was empty

}

{

empty-handed

}

{

a vacant professorship

}

{

a vacant apartment

}

When qualifying the same nouns the words usually suggest distinctly different ideas; thus, an empty house has neither furniture nor occupants; a vacant house is without inmates and presumably for rent or for sale; an empty chair has no one sitting in it at the time; a vacant chair is one that has lost its usual occupant by death or other cause; an empty space has nothing in it; a vacant space is one left to be filled with what is appropriate

{

[it] enabled him to fill a place which would else have been vacant— Hawthorne

}

Something, especially a surface, is blank which is free from writing or marks or which has vacant spaces that are left to be filled in

{

a blank page

}

{

a blank application

}

Something is void which is absolutely empty so far as the senses can discover

{

a conscience void of offense

}

{

sandy wilderness, all black and void— Wordsworth

}

{

the void, hollow, universal air— Shelley

}

Something is vacuous which exhibits the absolute emptiness of a vacuum

{

the vacuous globe of an incandescent lamp

}

In extended use the same distinctions hold: an empty mind is destitute of worthwhile ideas or knowledge; a vacant mind lacks its usual occupant, the soul or intellect; a blank look is without expression; a person is said to be void of learning or of common sense when not the slightest evidence of either one can be detected; a vacuous mind, look, or expression is so deficient in alertness or spirit as to suggest a vacuum in its inanity

{

the unthinking mind is not necessarily dull, rude, or impervious; it is probably simply empty— Eliot

}

{

the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind— Goldsmith

}

{

his eyes had that blank fixed gaze . . . that babies' eyes have— M. E. Freeman

}

{

it is dull and void as a work of art— Montague

}

{

there was nothing to be read in the vacuous face, blank as a school notice board out of term— Greene

}

Analogous words: *devoid, destitute, void: *bare, barren: exhausted, drained, depleted (see DEPLETE)

Antonyms: full

Contrasted words: replete, complete (see FULL)

2 idle, hollow, *vain, nugatory, otiose

Analogous words: inane, *insipid, vapid, flat, jejune, banal: trifling, trivial, paltry, *petty: fruitless, *futile, vain, bootless

Contrasted words: significant, meaningful, pregnant (see EXPRESSIVE): genuine, *authentic, veritable, bona fide