empty

Universal Words adjective, verb adjective (emptier, emptiest) 1 ~ (of sth) with no people or things inside: an empty box / glass * empty hands (= not holding anything) * an empty plate (= with no food on it) * The theatre was half empty. * an empty house / room / bus * As it got later, the streets became empty. * Is this an empty chair (= not one that another person will be using)? * The house had been standing empty (= without people living in it) for some time. * It's not good to drink alcohol on an empty stomach (= without having eaten something). * (formal) The room was empty of furniture. * (formal) For the first time in years, Trafalgar Square was empty of pigeons. 2 [usuallybeforenoun] (of sth that sb says or does) with no meaning; not meaning what is said: empty words * an empty promise * an empty gesture aimed at pleasing the crowds 3 (of a person, or a person's life) unhappy because life does not seem to have a purpose, usually after sth sad has happened: Three months after his death, she still felt empty. * My life seems empty without you. 4 ~ of sth without a quality that you would expect to be there: words that were empty of meaning emptily adverb: She stood staring emptily into space. IDIOMS the empty nest the situation that parents are in when their children have left home: the empty nest syndrome verb (empties, emptying, emptied, emptied) 1 [VN] ~ sth (out / out of sth)