empty
Other forms: emptied; emptying; empties; emptier; emptily; emptiest
If you're an optimist, you're happy that your glass is still half full. If you're a pessimist, you can't help but notice that 50% of your glass is now empty — that is, it contains nothing.
Empty comes from an Old English word meaning "at leisure," or in other words, "unoccupied." Over time, the sense of that meaning changed from "not at work" to "devoid of contents." By the tenth century, any container that could be filled or full could also be emptied or empty. As the word continued to evolve, it developed a more figurative sense. If you feel sad and lost, you might say that you feel so empty. If you want to go to the movies and your parents say, "No, but maybe tomorrow," you probably consider that an empty promise, one that will never be fulfilled.
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holding or containing nothing“an empty glass”“an empty room”“full of empty seats”“empty hours”
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synonyms:
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bare, stripped
having everything extraneous removed including contents
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blank, clean, white
(of a surface) not written or printed on
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empty-handed
carrying nothing in the hands
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glassy, glazed
(used of eyes) lacking liveliness
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lifeless
destitute or having been emptied of life or living beings
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looted, pillaged, plundered, ransacked
wrongfully emptied or stripped of anything of value
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vacant
without an occupant or incumbent
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vacant
void of thought or knowledge
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vacuous
devoid of matter
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void
containing nothing
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antonyms:
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full
containing as much or as many as is possible or normal
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afloat, awash, flooded, inundated, overflowing
covered with water
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air-filled
full of air
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brimful, brimfull, brimming
filled to capacity
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chock-full, chockablock, chockful, choke-full, chuck-full, cram full
packed full to capacity
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congested, engorged
overfull as with blood
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egg-filled
full of eggs
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filled
(usually followed by `with' or used as a combining form) generously supplied with
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fraught, pregnant
filled with or attended with
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gas-filled
full of a gas
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glutted, overfull
exceeding demand
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heavy, weighed down
full of; bearing great weight
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instinct, replete
(followed by `with')deeply filled or permeated
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laden, ladened, loaded
filled with a great quantity
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overladen, overloaded
loaded past capacity
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riddled
spread throughout
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sperm-filled
filled with sperm
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stuffed
filled with something
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stuffed
crammed with food
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untasted, untouched
still full
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well-lined
full of money
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bare, stripped
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make void or empty of contents“Empty the box”“The alarm emptied the building”
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antonyms:
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fill
make full, also in a metaphorical sense
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types:
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bail
empty (a vessel) by bailing
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clean out, clear out
empty completely
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bleed
drain of liquid or steam
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evacuate
empty completely
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evacuate
create a vacuum in (a bulb, flask, reaction vessel)
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eviscerate
remove the contents of
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void
clear (a room, house, place) of occupants or empty or clear (a place or receptacle) of something
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clear
remove the occupants of
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clear
rid of instructions or data
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exhaust
use up the whole supply of
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knock out
empty (as of tobacco) by knocking out
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drain
empty of liquid; drain the liquid from
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core out, hollow, hollow out
remove the interior of
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gut
empty completely; destroy the inside of
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clinker
clear out the cinders and clinker from
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gouge, rout
make a groove in
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scallop, scollop
form scallops in
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hole
make holes in
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draw in, suck in
draw in as if by suction
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scoop out
hollow out with a scoop
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cavern, cavern out
hollow out as if making a cavern
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cave, undermine
hollow out as if making a cave or opening
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dig, dig out
create by digging
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excavate
form by hollowing
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core
remove the core or center from
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fill
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excrete or discharge from the body
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become empty or void of its content
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remove
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leave behind empty; move out of
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a container that has been emptied“return all empties to the store”
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type of:
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container
any object that can be used to hold things (especially a large metal boxlike object of standardized dimensions that can be loaded from one form of transport to another)
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container
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devoid of significance or point“empty promises”
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meaningless, nonmeaningful
having no meaning or direction or purpose
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meaningless, nonmeaningful
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needing nourishment“after skipped lunch the men were empty by suppertime”“empty-bellied children”
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synonyms:
empty-bellied
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hungry
feeling hunger; feeling a need or desire to eat food
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hungry
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emptied of emotion“after the violent argument he felt empty”
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synonyms:
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drained
emptied or exhausted of (as by drawing off e.g. water or other liquid)
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drained
/ˈɛm(p)ti/
/ˈɛmpti/
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Vocabulary lists containing empty
Creative writers, this one's for you! We've collected 100 words to describe how people feel. Improve your EQ by learning them all.
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