hollow

«hollow» in Mova's school dictionary: empty inside, with a space in it — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (hollow, hollower, hollowest); noun (a hollow, hollows); verb (hollow out, hollows out, hollowed out, hollowing out)

meaning for a pupil

1) Hollow means empty inside, with a space in it. tree →

2) A hollow is a hole in something, or a small low place in the ground. tree →

3) To hollow out something is to make a hole or space inside it. tree →

4) Hollow can mean not sincere or not true, like a hollow promise. tree →

5) A hollow sound is deep and empty-sounding, as if it comes from an empty space. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science lessons birds' bones are hollow, so they are light for flying; a hollow tree trunk can be a home for owls and squirrels. In music, hollow instruments make sound echo. At Halloween people hollow out pumpkins. In stories a hollow sound or a hollow laugh. Phrases: hollow tree, hollow out, hollow promise, hollow sound.

examples

• The owl lives in a hollow tree. tree →
• Birds have hollow bones. tree →
• Tap the box — it sounds hollow. tree →
• We hollowed out a pumpkin for Halloween. tree →
• Rain collected in a hollow in the ground. tree →
• A chocolate egg is hollow inside. tree →
• His promise sounded hollow. tree →
• There is nothing in you; you are hollow and empty. tree →

note

Spelling: double l, ends in -ow. Opposite: solid. A hollow object can be strong and light — that is why tubes and bones are hollow. In maths, a hollow box (open or closed) has surface area but encloses empty space.

In the corpora

• The didgeridoo comes from Aboriginal Australians of northern Australia, traditionally made from a branch hollowed by termites; skilled players use circular breathing.
• Snap a chicken bone from Sunday dinner and it is hollow, with thin struts inside like a bridge, light but strong.
• Many bird bones are hollow, with thin crossing struts, and some are filled with air connected to the lungs.
• The largest fliers ever, pterosaurs like Quetzalcoatlus, had wings about 10 metres across but were light, with hollow bones.
• Polar bear skin is black and its fur is made of see-through hollow hairs that look white because they scatter light.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «hollow» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.