empty
Forms
- Comparative
- emptier
- Superlative
- emptiest
- Plural
- empties
- present (v1)
- empty
- past (v2)
- emptied
- past participle (v3)
- emptied
- present participle
- emptying
- 3rd person singular
- empties
Definitions
1.Devoid of content; containing nothing or nobody; vacant.
- There are some empty bottles in the box.
- You shouldn't be drinking on an empty stomach.
2.Containing no elements (as of a string, array, or set), opposed to being null (having no valid value).
- There are some empty bottles in the box.
- You shouldn't be drinking on an empty stomach.
3.Having nothing to carry, emptyhanded; unburdened.
- There are some empty bottles in the box.
- You shouldn't be drinking on an empty stomach.
4.Destitute of effect, sincerity, or sense; said of language.
- There are some empty bottles in the box.
- You shouldn't be drinking on an empty stomach.
1.Of a river, duct, etc: to drain or flow toward an ultimate destination.
- Salmon River empties on the W shore about 2 miles below Bear River.
- Of these the Rhine empties into the Northern ocean and the Danube into the Euxine.
2.To make empty; to remove the contents of.
- The cinema emptied quickly after the end of the film.
- The suspected thief was requested to empty her pockets.
1.A container, especially a bottle, whose contents have been used up, leaving it empty.
- Put the empties out to be recycled.
- A shaft runround was made to conduct the empties from the tippler to the empty side of the shaft where they would rejoin the old circuit.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #1832
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Uncommon
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Common
Related words
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English emty, amty, from Old English ǣmtiġ, ǣmettiġ (“vacant, empty, free, idle, unmarried”, literally “without must or obligation, leisurely”), from Proto-Germanic *uz- (“out”) + Proto-Germanic *mōtijô, *mōtô (“must, obligation, need”), *mōtiþô (“ability, accommodation”), from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“measure; to acquire, possess, be in command”). Related to Old English ġeǣmtigian (“to empty”), ǣmetta (“leisure”), mōtan (“can, to be allowed”). More at mote, meet.