- Holding or containing nothing.
- Mathematics. Having no elements or members; null: an empty set.
- Having no occupants or inhabitants; vacant: an empty chair; empty desert.
- Lacking force or power: an empty threat.
- Lacking purpose or substance; meaningless: an empty life.
- Not put to use; idle: empty hours.
- Needing nourishment; hungry: “More fierce and more inexorable far/Than empty tigers or the roaring sea” (Shakespeare).
- Devoid; destitute: empty of pity.
v., -tied, -ty·ing, -ties. v.tr.
- To remove the contents of: emptied the dishwasher.
- To transfer or pour off completely: empty the ashes into a pail.
- To unburden; relieve: empty oneself of doubt.
- To become empty: The theater emptied after the performance.
- To discharge its contents: The river empties into a bay.
An empty container.
[Middle English, from Old English ǣmtig, vacant, unoccupied, from ǣmetta, leisure.]
emptily emp'ti·ly adv.emptiness emp'ti·ness n.
SYNONYMS empty, vacant, blank, void, vacuous, bare, barren. These adjectives mean without contents that could or should be present. Empty applies to what is wholly lacking contents or substance: an empty room; empty promises. Vacant refers to what is without an occupant or incumbent, or to what is without intelligence or thought: a vacant auditorium; a vacant stare. Blank stresses the absence of something, especially on a surface, that would convey meaning or content: blank pages. Void applies to what is free from or completely destitute of discernible content: gibberish void of all meaning. Vacuous describes what is as devoid of substance as a vacuum is: led a vacuous life. Something that is bare lacks surface covering (a bare head) or detail (the bare facts); the word also denotes the condition of being stripped of contents or furnishings: a bare closet. Barren literally and figuratively stresses lack of productivity: barren land; writing barren of insight. See also synonyms at vain.
WORD HISTORY In Old English Ic eom ǣmtig could mean “I am empty,” “I am unoccupied,” or “I am unmarried.” The sense “unoccupied, at leisure,” which did not survive Old English, points to the derivation of ǣmtig from the Old English word ǣmetta, “leisure, rest.” The word ǣmetta may in turn go back to the Germanic root *mōt–, meaning “ability, leisure.” In any case, Old English ǣmtig also meant “vacant,” a sense that was destined to take over the meaning of the word. Empty, the Modern English descendant of Old English ǣmtig, has come to have the sense “idle,” so that one can speak of empty leisure.
