Free TranslationFree Translation
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Empty   Listen
adjective
Empty  adj.  (compar. emptier; superl. emptiest)  
1.
Containing nothing; not holding or having anything within; void of contents or appropriate contents; not filled; said of an inclosure, or a container, as a box, room, house, etc.; as, an empty chest, room, purse, or pitcher; an empty stomach; empty shackles.
2.
Free; clear; devoid; often with of. "That fair female troop... empty of all good." "I shall find you empty of that fault."
3.
Having nothing to carry; unburdened. "An empty messenger." "When ye go ye shall not go empty."
4.
Destitute of effect, sincerity, or sense; said of language; as, empty words, or threats. "Words are but empty thanks."
5.
Unable to satisfy; unsatisfactory; hollow; vain; said of pleasure, the world, etc. "Pleas'd in the silent shade with empty praise."
6.
Producing nothing; unfruitful; said of a plant or tree; as, an empty vine. "Seven empty ears blasted with the east wind."
7.
Destitute of, or lacking, sense, knowledge, or courtesy; as, empty brains; an empty coxcomb. "That in civility thou seem'st so empty."
8.
Destitute of reality, or real existence; unsubstantial; as, empty dreams. Note: Empty is used as the first element in a compound; as, empty-handed, having nothing in the hands, destitute; empty-headed, having few ideas; empty-hearted, destitute of feeling.
Synonyms: See Vacant.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Empty" Quotes from Famous Books



... pause of dead silence. The murmur of the summer waves on the shingle of the beach and the voices of the summer idlers on the Parade floated through the open window, and filled the empty stillness of the room. ...
— No Name • Wilkie Collins

... only end of life. The loss of which I speak is that incurred by engaging in pursuits which do not give mental strength or resource or bodily health. The hard-worked business-man who gallops twenty miles after hounds before he settles to his long stretch of toil is not losing his day; the empty young dandy whose life for five months in the year is given up to galloping across grass country or lounging around stables is decidedly a spendthrift so far ...
— The Ethics of Drink and Other Social Questions - Joints In Our Social Armour • James Runciman

... marvellously troubled with the falling sickness. Now Faustus had this quality, he seldom rid, but commonly walked afoot to ease himself when he list; and as he came near unto the town of Brunswick there overtook him a clown with four horses and an empty waggon, to whom Dr. Faustus (jestingly, to try him) said: "I pray thee, good fellow, let me ride a little to ease my weary legs;" which the buzzardly ass denied, saying that his horse was weary; and he would not let ...
— Mediaeval Tales • Various

... to her room at ten o'clock the previous morning, her breakfast hour, and found it wide open and empty save for the femme de chambre making great clatter of sweeping. He stood open-mouthed on the threshold. To be abroad at such an hour was not in Elodie's habits. Their train did not start till the afternoon. His eye quickly caught the uninhabited ...
— The Mountebank • William J. Locke

... l'Hypocrite, at the same time as la Princesse d'Elide. "The king," says the account of the entertainment in the Gazette de Loret, "saw so much analogy of form between those whom true devotion sets in the way of heaven and those whom an empty ostentation of good deeds does not hinder from committing bad, that his extreme delicacy in respect of religious matters could with difficulty brook this resemblance of vice to virtue; and though there ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume V. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot

... of all goods, each combatant is seized with a fierce desire to put down his rivals in every possible way, till he who at last comes out victorious is more proud of having done harm to others than of having done good to himself. This sort of honour, then, is really empty, ...
— The Ethics • Benedict de Spinoza

... at once ushered into the still empty workroom. Mademoiselle Le Mire seated her in front of a great drawer filled with pearls, needles, and bodkins, with instalments of four-sou novels thrown in at random ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... water, food and water for the half-battalion of the escort and the 2,000 artificers and platelayers, and the letters, newspapers, sausages, jam, whisky, soda-water, and cigarettes which enable the Briton to conquer the world without discomfort. And presently the empty trains would depart, reversing the process of their arrival, and vanishing gradually along a line which appeared at last to turn up into the air and run at a tangent into an ...
— The River War • Winston S. Churchill

... the hungry maw, To teach the empty stomach how to fill, To pour red port adown the parched craw; Without one dread ...
— Poetic Sketches • Thomas Gent

... told me plainly at last that she could not stand our round of services. They seem empty and obsolete to her, and she could not feign to attend them or vex us, and cause remarks by staying away, and of course she neither could nor would teach anything but secular matters. 'My coming would be nothing but pain to ...
— More Bywords • Charlotte M. Yonge

... and effect whether his horse was stationary or at full gallop, and whether he was advancing towards or hurriedly retreating from his enemy. His supply of missiles was almost inexhaustible, for when he found his quiver empty, he had only to retire a short distance and replenish his stock from magazines, borne on the backs of camels, in the rear. It was his ordinary plan to keep constantly in motion when in the presence of an enemy, to gallop backwards and ...
— The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 6. (of 7): Parthia • George Rawlinson

... on his way to France! And though he went in civilian capacity and wasn't in the least likely to get hurt, when they were seated in the car Laura leaned over and kissed her new cousin again, with the recollection warm on her lips of empty, anxious days when she too had waited for the release of the cards announcing safe ...
— The Camerons of Highboro • Beth B. Gilchrist

... long way, with the heavenly miracles in the wild path of sailors who make for no port! Seated on a poop without a helm, his eye had ranged from the two Bears majestically overhanging the North, to the brilliant Southern Cross, through the blank Antarctic deserts extending through the empty space of the heavens overhead, as well as over the dreary waves below, where the despairing eye finds nothing to contemplate in the sombre depths of a sky without a star, vainly arching over a shoreless and bottomless sea! He ...
— Life of Chopin • Franz Liszt

... tortuous lanes down towards the abandoned Customs Inspectorate and the Austrian Legation. We reached the rear of the Customs compounds without a sound being heard or a living thing seen. All along hundreds of yards of twisting alleyways the native houses stood empty and silent, abandoned by their owners just as they are. Even the Peking dog, a cur of great ferocity, who in peaceful times abounds everywhere and is the terror of our riding-parties, had fled, as if driven away by the fear of the coming storm. In the distance, ...
— Indiscreet Letters From Peking • B. L. Putman Weale

... are the smallest workers. The deep rivers pay a larger tribute to the sea than shallow brooks, and yet empty themselves with less noise."—SECKER. ...
— The Mirrors of Downing Street - Some Political Reflections by a Gentleman with a Duster • Harold Begbie

... lay down guiding lines. I believe the ideal treatment would be a supra-pubic cystotomy and drainage of the bladder by a Sprengel's pump apparatus, such as we employ at home. Under these circumstances, with the possibility of keeping the bladder actually empty, I believe good results might be obtained. Certainly drainage of the bladder by a catheter tied in proved worse than useless, and I very much doubt whether a simple supra-pubic opening would give any better results under the circumstances ...
— Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900 • George Henry Makins

... not escaped, escorted, like a king. The base Covilla first pursued her way On foot; but after her the royal car, Which bore me from San Pablos to the throne, Empty indeed, yet ready at her voice, Rolled o'er the plain, amid the carcases Of those who fell in battle or in flight: She, a deceiver still, to whate'er speed The moment might incite her, often stopped To mingle prayers with ...
— Count Julian • Walter Savage Landor

... made any new resolution in his soul, but merely because the words spoken by his brother were like the light push of a finger against a leaning wall already about to tumble by its own weight. These words but showed him that the place wherein he supposed religion dwelt in him had long been empty, and that the sentences he uttered, the crosses and bows which he made during his prayer, were actions with no inner sense. Having once seized their absurdity, he could no longer keep them ...
— The Varieties of Religious Experience • William James

... they wished to have at hand, by which means they often came to be incredibly crammed; and I remember there was a story current, when I was a boy, that the lady of Wouter Van Twiller once had occasion to empty her right pocket in search of a wooden ladle, when the contents filled a couple of corn baskets, and the utensil was discovered lying among some rubbish in one corner; but we must not give too much faith to all these stories, ...
— Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete • Washington Irving

... poor, famine-struck looking woman, with three or four children, the very pictures of starvation and misery, came to the door, and, in that voice of terrible destitution, which rings feeble and hollow from an empty and exhausted frame, she implored ...
— The Black Prophet: A Tale Of Irish Famine • William Carleton

... value upon the ritual of a belief than upon the spirit which underlies it. The ballot is not democracy: it is merely the symbol or ritual of democracy, and it may be full of passionate social, yes, even religious significance, or it may be a mere empty and dangerous formalism. What we should look to, then, primarily, is not the shadow, but the substance of democracy in this country. Nor must we look for results too swiftly; our progress toward democracy is slow of growth ...
— The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 1995, Memorial Issue • Various

... about pumped these slaves empty," he said. "The local religion is a mess. Seems to have started out as a Great Mother cult; then it picked up a lot of gods borrowed from other peoples; then it turned into a dualistic monotheism; then it picked up a lot of minor gods and devils—new devils usually gods ...
— Time Crime • H. Beam Piper

... and it is borne in the pure red blood. This is why we see in the heart two receptacles; in one is spirit, in the other, blood. Hence after death we find congealed blood in the one, while the other is empty. Death happens on account of the defective "mixture" of the heart. This means that the four humors of which the body is composed, namely, blood, yellow and black gall and phlegm, lose the proper proportionality in their composition, and one or other ...
— A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy • Isaac Husik

... the empty deck, His lonely ship an unmann'd wreck; Magnus the Good, the people's friend, Pressed to the death on the false Svein. Hneiter (2), the sword his father bore, Was edge and point, stained red with gore; Swords sprinkle blood o'er ...
— Heimskringla - The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway • Snorri Sturluson

... direction."[163] And then we camped after getting into a bunch of crevasses, completely lost. Bill said, "At any rate I think we are well clear of the pressure." But there were pressure pops all night, as though some one was whacking an empty tub. ...
— The Worst Journey in the World, Volumes 1 and 2 - Antarctic 1910-1913 • Apsley Cherry-Garrard

... art thought to be as full of quibbling as a cock of dirt. Thou stinkest heavy with filth, and reekest of nought but sin. There is no need to lengthen the plea against a buffoon, whose strength is in an empty and voluble tongue." ...
— The Danish History, Books I-IX • Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Learned")

... of Brull went down and down, but its prestige rose higher and higher. The sacks of money filled by the old man at the cost of so much roguery were shaken empty over all the District; nor were several assaults upon the municipal treasury sufficient to bring them back to normal roundness. Don Ramon contemplated this squandering impassively, proud that people should be talking of his generosity as much ...
— The Torrent - Entre Naranjos • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... forestalled it and scattered to their homes. The dramatic interest was over; it was generally felt that no more than a formality remained. When for the last time Jasper Fay was led in to confront his peers it was before a comparatively empty court. ...
— The Side Of The Angels - A Novel • Basil King

... because Miss Deborah objected to a shadow on the board, which would have been cast by a hanging lamp. The August night was hot, and doors and windows were open for any breath of air that might be stirring in the dark garden. Max had retreated to the empty fireplace, finding the bricks cooler than the carpeted floor. All was very still, save when the emphatic sweep of a trump card made the candle flames flicker. But the deals were a diversion. Then the rector, who had tiptoed about, to look over the ...
— John Ward, Preacher • Margaret Deland

... the work of a moment to spread the robe on a grassy knoll, and here Cousin Stella's chauffeur found them just as Rollo tossed the empty bottle into a coppice. ...
— Rollo in Society - A Guide for Youth • George S. Chappell

... Twice he broke into Doyle's house when the old man was out, but on both occasions was unsuccessful in his search, and was interrupted and forced to make his escape on account of Doyle's return. To-night, an hour ago, in an empty room on the second floor of that tenement, in the room facing the landing, old Luther ...
— The Adventures of Jimmie Dale • Frank L. Packard

... was to obtain money. Without it we could have neither fleet nor army. The treasury of France was empty, almost to bankruptcy. Never did he struggle against greater obstacles than during the next three years. It has been truly said, that Franklin, without intending it, helped to bleed the French monarchy to death. In addition to the ...
— Benjamin Franklin, A Picture of the Struggles of Our Infant Nation One Hundred Years Ago - American Pioneers and Patriots Series • John S. C. Abbott

... empty. From one of the doorways a voice called to him to come back. But he walked on, up the street and across the roadway to a green-painted wicket. It opened upon a garden, and across the garden he came ...
— Corporal Sam and Other Stories • A. T. Quiller-Couch

... and wholly unreasonable feeling of being paid for her present as she put the two sovereigns in her purse. Cecil had given her no gift, and the lack of the kindly attention increased the feeling of desolation with which she returned to her empty room. Even the tiniest offering to show that she had been thought of, ...
— The Independence of Claire • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... of the cave, which had evidently been used as a dwelling for many years past, they came upon the corpse of another man, in a sitting posture, propped up against the wall. One arm rested upon an empty spirit-keg, beside which were a tin pannikin and a few rude cooking utensils. At his feet lay the skeleton of a dog. The whole group had evidently been dead for a considerable time. Further search revealed large supplies of clothes, saddlery, ...
— Robbery Under Arms • Thomas Alexander Browne, AKA Rolf Boldrewood

... be stupid, but at any rate it saves expenditure of energy and treasure; protracted operations may be very clever, but they bring calamity in their train." Wang Hsi evades the difficulty by remarking: "Lengthy operations mean an army growing old, wealth being expended, an empty exchequer and distress among the people; true cleverness insures against the occurrence of such calamities." Chang Yu says: "So long as victory can be attained, stupid haste is preferable to clever dilatoriness." ...
— The Art of War • Sun Tzu

... moved on and made a thorough search of the other closet ends, and the open spaces under the eaves, but without result. One empty and extremely dirty pasteboard box was all ...
— Chicken Little Jane • Lily Munsell Ritchie

... gifted statesman had always a weary gloom in the deep caverns of his eyes, as of a child that has outgrown its playthings, or a man of mighty faculties and little aims, whose life, with all its high performances, was vague and empty, because no high purpose had endowed it ...
— Bible Stories and Religious Classics • Philip P. Wells

... over-reacheth his neigbbour, therefore Dabitur is gone, and our Lord God will bless no more so richly. Beloved, said Luther, he that intendeth to have anything, the same must also give; a liberal hand was never in want nor empty. ...
— Selections from the Table Talk of Martin Luther • Martin Luther

... the woman to whom you had given the volume must have been quite outside the ordinary category, for I could not take those two lines as a mere empty compliment." ...
— Camille (La Dame aux Camilias) • Alexandre Dumas, fils

... out of the rancher's holster like a flash, and, head low on the neck of the mustang, heels in the little beast's ribs, the aborigine retreated with a yell, amid a shower of ill-aimed bullets. Long after the figure on the pony had passed out of range, Blair stood pulling at the trigger of the empty repeater and cursing louder than before because ...
— Ben Blair - The Story of a Plainsman • Will Lillibridge

... twice the per cent kernel of the weight of the nuts recovered in the first crack plus the total percentage of kernel plus 1/10 of a point for each quarter kernel recovered. Penalties were proposed for shrunken kernels and empty nuts. Through the years a large number of samples have been tested according to this scoring schedule (11). In 1943, MacDaniels and Wilde (12) summarized the previous work done, added many tests and evaluated ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Thirty-Eighth Annual Meeting • Northern Nut Growers Association

... three leading spirits cast down gloom was thick everywhere. Morning Sing went flat—the high tenors couldn't keep in tune without Mary to lead them, and nobody else could make the gestures for The Lone Fish Ball. It seemed strange, too, to see Dr. Grayson's chair empty, and to do without his jolly morning talk. Everyone who had gotten up early was full of ...
— The Campfire Girls at Camp Keewaydin • Hildegard G. Frey

... replied Cleo, swishing her reservoir hat around to empty its contents. "Let us woo the wooseys undisturbed. I should like to dump the mud out of ...
— The Girl Scouts at Bellaire - Or Maid Mary's Awakening • Lilian C. McNamara Garis

... got out accidental you've had a most providential escape, an' me an' my mates don't deserve less than to hear about it. There's bound to be inquiries after you when the guard finds your compartment empty an' the door open. May be the train'll put back; more likely they'll send a search-party; but anyways you're all wet through, an' the best thing for health is to off wi' your clothes an' dry ...
— News from the Duchy • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... who have of their own free will left the world. They cannot produce any kind of Biblical authority, nay, they have no philosophical arguments that are at all valid; and it is reasons that we want; mere empty phrases or words of abuse we cannot accept. If the criminal law forbids suicide, that is not a reason that holds good in the church; moreover, it is extremely ridiculous, for what punishment can frighten those who seek death? When a man is punished for trying to commit suicide, it ...
— Essays of Schopenhauer • Arthur Schopenhauer

... of the tank so far had made no signs of complying with the German demand for surrender, bullets were still being rained upon the tractor. Hal now took a handkerchief from his pocket, put it on the end of his empty revolver, and poked it ...
— The Boy Allies with Haig in Flanders • Clair W. Hayes

... up the scattered garments, which had been left carelessly from the day before, and carried them into the kitchen, where a pine ironing board was supported by two empty barrels. Lila was busily preparing a bowl of gruel for one of the sick old Negroes who still lived upon the meager charity of ...
— The Deliverance; A Romance of the Virginia Tobacco Fields • Ellen Glasgow

... buried fortunes Slunk all away; left their false vows with him, Like empty purses pick'd; and his poor self, A dedicated beggar to the air, With his disease of all-shunn'd ...
— Biographical Essays • Thomas de Quincey

... attachment or bonds by straight lines connecting the atoms of the different elements. Now it is one of the rules of the game that all the bonds must be connected or hooked up with atoms at both ends, that there shall be no free hands reaching out into empty space. Carbon, for instance, has four bonds and hydrogen only one. They unite, therefore, in the proportion of one atom of carbon to four of hydrogen, or CH{4}, which is methane or marsh gas and ...
— Creative Chemistry - Descriptive of Recent Achievements in the Chemical Industries • Edwin E. Slosson

... tres antique, near the window, stood three water-jugs and a glass of imitation Venetian work. A yellow hand stretching from a dark heap of bedclothes clutched the glass and held it out, empty, when Von Holzen ...
— Roden's Corner • Henry Seton Merriman

... She felt bored and hungry, and went back to her hotel in a tramcar. She had no great desire to seek her room. From the street she had already noticed that the dining-room of the hotel was barely lighted and evidently empty. She had supper there, after which she grew tired and sleepy and, with an effort, went up the three flights of stairs to her room. As she sat on the bed and undid her shoe laces, she heard ten o'clock chime ...
— Bertha Garlan • Arthur Schnitzler

... arrived in the Redwing, the people who had worked for me had their pockets full of money and bought what they wanted, but the men who had been cultivating cotton on their own hook looked on with envious eyes and empty pockets, creating a very general impression in favor of the wages system. Under this impression, I think they will fall to work gradually at similar wages to what I have been paying, but will probably lie idle a few weeks to think about it, in ...
— Letters from Port Royal - Written at the Time of the Civil War (1862-1868) • Various

... not like Addison, who, content with his fame as a writer, did not attempt a share in conversation; to which Boswell added, that Goldsmith had a great deal of gold in his cabinet, but, not content with that, was always pulling out his purse. "Yes, sir," struck in Johnson, "and that is often an empty purse." ...
— Old and New London - Volume I • Walter Thornbury

... are empty; the paintings have been taken into an interior room. We go to find the curator of the Museum; we tell him in bad Italian that we have no letters of introduction, nor titles, nor any rights whatsoever to be admitted to see them. Thereupon he has the kindness to conduct us into the reserved ...
— Great Pictures, As Seen and Described by Famous Writers • Esther Singleton

... officers brought a cast of fine manchet bread, two great silver pots with wine, a pound of sugar, white and yellow candles, and a torch. As Randall said, "Charles gave solid pudding where Francis gave empty praise"! ...
— The Armourer's Prentices • Charlotte Mary Yonge

... the circumstances he preferred to be alone—he found two men sitting in front of his empty hearth. They were Matt Kelson and Ed Curtis; both of whom had been his colleagues at Meidler, Meidler & Co., in Sacramento Street, and like himself had been thrown out of work when the firm had "smashed." Since that affair ...
— The Sorcery Club • Elliott O'Donnell

... was, for the present, the most pressing, since the work before him demanded an amount of energy which the present empty condition of his youthful stomach did not ...
— Shirley • Charlotte Bronte

... transport his army to Virginia, and to maintain it there during the operations against Lord Cornwallis. In the spring of that year the revolution appeared to be all but exhausted. The treasury was not merely empty, but there was a floating debt upon it of two millions and a half, and the soldiers were clamorous for their pay. The Superintendent of Finance rose to the occasion. He issued his own notes to the amount of fourteen hundred thousand dollars by ...
— Revolutionary Heroes, And Other Historical Papers • James Parton

... go home right away with the bundles and change, but George said, "On no account can I git you wet. Miss Edith wouldn't stand for that nohow." So I went with him. And we played knife on the floor. It was a big empty barn. That is there weren't any cattle in ...
— W. A. G.'s Tale • Margaret Turnbull

... off and dismissed, and departed in the next day's coach from Montepoole. Fleda stood at the front door to see them go, with a curious sense that there was an empty house at her back, and indeed upon her back. And in spite of all the cheeriness of her tone to her aunt, she was not without some shadowy feeling that soberer times might be coming ...
— Queechy, Volume I • Elizabeth Wetherell

... wonderful cart you have," said Maurice; "though you have taken so much out, it never seems to get empty." "You are right, Maurice, there is never any end to love and kindness. As long as I find people to love and be kind to, my cart is full of blessings for them; and it will never grow empty until I can no longer ...
— Buttercup Gold and Other Stories • Ellen Robena Field

... clean hearth-stane, The luggies[18] three are ranged; And every time great care is ta'en, To see them duly changed: Auld uncle John, wha wedlock's joys Sin' Mar's year did desire, [1715 Rebellion] Because he gat the toom dish thrice, [empty] He heav'd them on the ...
— Robert Burns - How To Know Him • William Allan Neilson

... labor,—the attendance on fashionable churches. Already, it is said, a family may sometimes reconcile devout observance with a late breakfast, by stationing the family carriage near the church-door—empty. Really, it would not be a much emptier observance to send the cards alone by the footman; and doubtless in the progress of civilization we shall yet reach that point. It will have many advantages. The effete of society, as some ...
— Women and the Alphabet • Thomas Wentworth Higginson

... in 1884 by Archbishop Alemany as a seminary for young men who wished to study for the priesthood, but it was never very successful in this work. For awhile it remained empty, then was offered to the Dominican Sisters as a boarding-school. But as this undertaking did not pay, in 1891 Archbishop Riordan offered such terms as led the Mother General of the Dominican Sisters to purchase it as ...
— The Old Franciscan Missions Of California • George Wharton James

... end of the period in question all this had begun to change. Many were beginning to perceive that liberty might easily turn to license, that the spontaneous public energy was largely expended in empty words, and that a certain amount of hierarchical discipline was necessary in order to keep the public administration in motion. It was found, therefore, in 1864, that it was impossible to carry out to their ultimate consequences the general principles laid down and published ...
— Russia • Donald Mackenzie Wallace

... she now sat at home in the great empty parlor. It was in the twilight; she had laid down her work, and her beautiful, thoughtful eyes looked straight before her: thoughts which we may not unveil were ...
— O. T. - A Danish Romance • Hans Christian Andersen

... empowering him to select Marquette as a companion and enter upon a voyage of discovery. The winter was spent by these men in making preparations to carry out the commands of their superiors. The specific object of their mission was to explore the Mississippi, which was supposed to empty into the Gulf of California. That all possible information might be gained in regard to this unknown river, Marquette held conversations with all the noted Indian explorers and trappers, as well as the rangers of the woods within his reach. From the information thus ...
— Old Mackinaw - The Fortress of the Lakes and its Surroundings • W. P. Strickland

... things away and came and sat down on the other empty gin-case by my side, and fell to poking the fire again. He never showed the least curiosity as to who I was, or where I came from, or what I was doing on this deserted track: he seemed to take me as a matter of course—but all this was in keeping ...
— Children of the Bush • Henry Lawson

... that no man—not even in the suicidal season of November—shall drown, hang, or otherwise destroy himself, under any pretence soever! Sir PETER, with a very proper admiration of the pleasures of life, philosophises with a full stomach on the ignorance and wickedness of empty-bellied humanity; and Mr. HOBLER—albeit in the present case the word is not reported—doubtless cried "Amen!" to the wisdom of the alderman. Sir PETER henceforth stands sentinel at the gate of death, ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1, November 13, 1841 • Various

... love with them, and have pitied what they would have justly denominated her folly. Foolish must that woman be who would sacrifice the most precious gift in her possession—her heart—to the superficial graces or empty blandishments of a ...
— Thaddeus of Warsaw • Jane Porter

... by Dr. W. Thomas, 1730, and the edition of his "Monasticon," published 1823, there is mentioned in a note that a license for electing to the office was granted Johanna Shakespere, Sub-Prioress, September 5, 1525. So she might have had the empty title of Domina, without the usual pension allowed to the Prioress ...
— Shakespeare's Family • Mrs. C. C. Stopes

... on the porch and listened intently but all was very quiet. Of course the folks who owned the house might be still asleep or they might be away. She crept quietly to the first little round door and peeped in. She saw a cute little room entirely empty. "The family must be away" she thought. Boldly she peeped in through the second little door and saw another cute little room just like the first and also empty. Then she walked in and explored both rooms and found a sort of cubby hole closet at the back of each. "What a fine place for storing nuts," ...
— Whiffet Squirrel • Julia Greene

... trouble, my boy," said the Phoenix, as they scanned the empty beaches. "The Monster shifts about from island to island to avoid discovery. We shall just ...
— David and the Phoenix • Edward Ormondroyd

... these cars were not quite equal to the rough work, and in a short time they were sent away to other spheres where roads were better. The ground in our neighbourhood was so undermined by floods that on one occasion one of these cars, standing empty, suddenly broke through the upper crust up to its axles. A great deal of perspiration flowed before it ...
— In Mesopotamia • Martin Swayne

... shall grasp this oriflamme, Whatever man (last peasant or first Pope Seeking to free his country) shall appear, Teach, lead, strike fire into the masses, fill These empty bladders with fine air, insphere These wills into a unity of will, And make of Italy a nation—dear And blessed be ...
— The Development of the European Nations, 1870-1914 (5th ed.) • John Holland Rose

... sombrero and leather breeches, "I'm Bill Buckhorn, o' 'Rapahoe, an' thet's a place whar we don't 'low no critter like this yere Black Harry ter go waltzin' round more then sixteen brief second by ther clock. We ketches such cusses, an' then we takes 'em out an' shows 'em how ter do a jog on empty air. Over in 'Rapahoe we allows thet thar is ther way ter dispose o' sech cases, and I'm ready ter show you people o' Elreno ther purtiest way ter tie a runnin' knot in a hemp necktie. Whatever is ther use o' foolin' around an' dallyin' with ...
— Frank Merriwell's Bravery • Burt L. Standish

... saw him, but so tattered and dirty and threadbare that it was a marvel to me it did not fall to pieces before my eyes. The great ruff drooped brown and dank upon his shoulders. The gay shirt and doublet hung like grey sackcloth on his limbs. His shoes flapped in fragments about his feet, and the empty scabbard at his belt swung like the shreds of a worn rope ...
— Sir Ludar - A Story of the Days of the Great Queen Bess • Talbot Baines Reed

... wishes can end unhappily. If the grave is neglected, perhaps that is what he hoped it would be; but neglect, can grow into something worse. When I last saw the grave—perhaps on an unfortunate day—the heather had somehow collected newspapers and empty jampots; it looked like soon ...
— Highways and Byways in Surrey • Eric Parker

... to mistrust, suspect. desconocer not know, be ignorant. desconocido unknown. describir to describe. descubrir to discover, uncover. descuidar to neglect, not to be anxious. desde since, after, from. desdicha misfortune. desear to desire. desembarcar to disembark. desembocar to empty, pour. desencajar to force from its place, socket, etc. desencanto disenchantment, disillusion. desenfado facility, boldness. desenganar to undeceive. desengano undeceiving, disillusion. desenojar to appease, placate. desenterrar to disinter. ...
— Novelas Cortas • Pedro Antonio de Alarcon

... and petroleum products must be imported. The islands are rich in undeveloped mineral resources such as lead, zinc, nickel, and gold. Prior to the arrival of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI), severe ethnic violence, the closing of key businesses, and an empty government treasury culminated in economic collapse. RAMSI's efforts to restore law and order and economic stability have led to modest growth as ...
— The 2008 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... occurred to Otto long before, and more than once he explored his garments in search of some present for the youngster; but he possessed nothing that would answer. His pockets were empty of anything in the shape of coin, bright medals, buttons, or playthings of any sort likely to attract the eye of the aboriginal ...
— The Lost Trail - I • Edward S. Ellis

... by-ways and least frequented places, and I strove to remain by his side. In the course of about twenty minutes, I noticed a slackening in his pace, and as I had been looking about for some refuge, I remarked, through the open doors of a small cafe, an empty back-room, and motioned to him to follow me there. It was almost dark, and there was a divan running along three sides of the wall; I made him lie down upon it, and went to tell the dame-de-comptoir (who happened ...
— Philip Gilbert Hamerton • Philip Gilbert Hamerton et al

... evening there was a supper, and Santeuil was always the life of the company. One evening M. le Duc diverted himself by forcing Santeuil to drink champagne, and passing from pleasantry to pleasantry, thought it would be a good joke to empty his snuff-box, full of Spanish snuff, into a large glass of wine, and to make Santeuil drink it, in order to see what would happen. It was not long before he was enlightened upon this point. Santeuil was seized with vomiting and with fever, and in twice twenty-four hours the unhappy ...
— The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, Complete • Duc de Saint-Simon

... death an affection which owed what languid life it retained chiefly to propinquity and custom. Both Saumarez and Codrington, who served under him, speak passingly of the lightness with which his family ties sat upon Nelson in the years following his short stay at home in 1797. The house was empty, swept, and garnished, when the simple-minded, if lion-hearted, seaman came under the spell of one whose fascinations had overpowered the resistance of a cool-headed man of the world, leading him in his old age, with open eyes, to do what every prepossession and ...
— The Life of Nelson, Vol. I (of 2) - The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain • A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

... had sufficiently recovered herself, she went down to prepare the supper, according to her custom. She found the hall empty, and wondered what had become of her master and mistress. She glanced into the garden, and saw them walking up and down engaged in earnest conversation, although the hour was late and it was getting dark and chill. She felt that they were talking about her. She would not listen, ...
— Gladys, the Reaper • Anne Beale

... immediate and sole operation of God? ... if by Nature is [100] meant some being distinct from God, as well as from the laws of nature and things perceived by sense, I must confess that word is to me an empty sound, without any intelligible meaning annexed to it.] Nature in this acceptation is a vain Chimaera introduced by those heathens, who had not just notions of the omnipresence and infinite perfection ...
— Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays • Thomas H. Huxley

... nephew altogether, without selling an acre,—presuming the price already fixed to have been sufficient. He had determined to sell something, knowing that he could not do as he would do with the remainder if his hands were empty. He had settled it all in his mind;—how Ralph, his Ralph, must marry, and have a separate income. There would be no doubt about his Ralph's marriage when once it should be known that his Ralph was the heir to Newton. ...
— Ralph the Heir • Anthony Trollope

... accepting it; but like a flash it went through her brain how many advantages Dolly could enjoy in that wealthy household that the hard-working journalist could not possibly afford her. She thought of the unpaid bills, the empty cupboard, the wolf at the door, the blank outlook for the future. For a second, she half hesitated. "Come, come!" Sir Anthony said; "for the child's own sake; you won't be so selfish as to stand in her way, ...
— The Woman Who Did • Grant Allen

... maintained by Wolsey, dropped again for thirty years, and then re-created by Elizabeth. As Wolsey had played France and the Empire against each other, to make England the arbiter of Europe, so Elizabeth played France and Spain against each other, so that neither could afford to go beyond empty threats against her in her own territory; while both governments had recalcitrant Protestant subjects who were a good deal more hampering and disquieting to them than were Elizabeth's Catholic subjects to her. In ...
— England Under the Tudors • Arthur D. Innes

... vials one after another from their receptacles, and held them up to the light; on each was a cipher, and on no two was the same. Most of them were quite filled with the fluid contained, but some were only half full, while one was nearly empty. Dr. Orfila looked closely at the cipher upon each vial as he removed it from the casket. He then held it to the light to determine its particular hue or shade, and sometimes withdrew the crystal ...
— Edmond Dantes • Edmund Flagg

... how was she to set about it, how was she to bring about that he remained with her for ever? She stared at the empty fields with lifeless eyes. Then she threw herself on her knees in her terror and distress and deep despair. Here under the sky, that looked like a dome over the flat land, she would pray, she would cry at the door of heaven, so that the saints who were inside ...
— Absolution • Clara Viebig

... detached a part of his army to Georgia. The enemy have evacuated all the outposts they held in that State, and retired into Savannah. It is imagined that they will shortly evacuate and concentre their forces at New York. Empty transports have sailed from the latter place, but whether to bring away the troops from Charleston I cannot say. We are extremely anxious to hear the event of a battle, which has been fought in the West Indies between the fleets, but ...
— The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. VIII • Various

... doors of the strong-room she saw the empty cash tray lying on the floor, the note drawer pulled out, the vacant space of the ...
— The Rider of Waroona • Firth Scott

... left pounded, to be left closed, to be circulating in summer and winter, and sick color that is grey that is not dusty and red shows, to be sure cigarettes do measure an empty length sooner than a choice ...
— Tender Buttons - Objects—Food—Rooms • Gertrude Stein

... he always told me that he had the accompts lying by him, yet at last p'ceaving his excuses, and revolving upon suspicion of his words to put him home to a full tryall I found to my great griefe that all his accompts were written in sand, and his words committed to the empty winds. God is witness to the truth of this apologie, and that I made it knowne at some parish meetings before his own face, who could not deny it, neither do I write it to blemishe him, but to cleere my own integritie as far as I may, and to give accompt of this miscarryage to after ages ...
— The Parish Clerk (1907) • Peter Hampson Ditchfield

... will. One day he was enthusiastic over Voss's idyls, the next he was carried away by Robespierre's wildest speeches. One year he adopted Kant's Christian name Immanuel in transport over his works, the next he called the great philosopher "an empty nut, and moreover hard to crack." The romanticism in Denmark as well as in Germany reduced him to a state of utter confusion; but in spite of this he continued a child of the old order, which was already doomed. And with all his unrest and discord he remained nevertheless ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 3 • Various

... right). Here's to thy health, old enemy! Thou hast long driven us on to unpaid work, and awaked us early to unheeded pain! Ha! ha! When thou risest upon us to-morrow, thou wilt find us with fish and flesh: now off to the devil, empty glass! ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol 6, No 5, November 1864 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... that night the teamster, Lufkins, was startled by the neighing of a horse, and when he came to the stable, there was the half-blinded animal on which old Jim and tiny Skeezucks had ridden away in the morning—the empty saddle still ...
— Bruvver Jim's Baby • Philip Verrill Mighels

... for tolerable, did it put young beginners in the least way to well-speaking. Whereas now, what with the inordinate swelling of matter, and the empty ratling of words, they only gain this, That when they come to appear in publick, they think themselves in another world. And therefore I look upon the young fry of collegiates as likely to make the most helpful blockheads, because they ...
— The Satyricon • Petronius Arbiter

... their one wolf cub out there, Hugh Fraser skillfully extorted a surrender of a huge private treasure of jewels from these people while they were hidden away in Humayoon's tomb. There's one trust deposit yet to be divided between the Government and this sly old Indo-Scotch-man, and I fancy the empty honor of the baronetcy is a quid pro quo." Alan Hawke laughed heartily. "It is really ...
— A Fascinating Traitor • Richard Henry Savage

... insensible porter. The removal of the goods betokened the robbery. Gold, silver and platina to the value of three thousand dollars were taken away, but there were no traces or evidence of the burglars. A murdered man lay dead in the entry, a number of shelves stood empty against the wall, but neither clue nor trace, footprint nor finger mark, existed to aid or direct the detective's sagacity in his search. Detective Taggart knew this. He felt the difficulty of his situation, and he preserved the chisel as the first ...
— The Secrets Of The Great City • Edward Winslow Martin

... forty-three years ago, stolen, filched from my father! but so long as I have power to think and to act I will maintain my claim to that land; yes, if only by the empty mockery of a name on a visiting card. It is a duty I owe to myself as a man, which I owe still more to ...
— Phantom Fortune, A Novel • M. E. Braddon

... bloodshot. One shake of his great body flung Hare off. He dragged Paul Caldwell across the grass toward the cottonwood as easily as if he were handling an empty grain-sack. ...
— The Heritage of the Desert • Zane Grey

... much, for the Word is more important than the sign. Still, I should like to know who gave them the power to do such a thing. In the same way they might take from us the other element and give us the empty monstrance to kiss as a relic, and at last abolish everything that Christ has instituted. I fear it is a figure and type that augurs nothing good in these perilous, perverted latter days. It is said that the pope has the power to do it; I say that is all fiction, he does not have ...
— Works of Martin Luther - With Introductions and Notes (Volume I) • Martin Luther

... Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." But while He sought no additional glory, He found additional work. The office He now fills existed not till He ascended to the Father from an empty grave. He descended into the dominion of death and robbed it of its power. He dragged the captor captive, and gave gifts unto men. Ascending, as a conquering king, His angelic retinue raise the exultant shout: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting ...
— Autobiography of Frank G. Allen, Minister of the Gospel - and Selections from his Writings • Frank G. Allen

... invented a game. That is, the boys had. I will give the girls the credit of standing by and looking on, in a very disapproving manner, while this game was going on. The pastime was a very simple one. When the stone-end of the pole rested on the ground, on account of the bucket being empty, one of the boys stood by the well-curb, and, seizing the rope as high up as he could, pulled upon it, the other boys lifting the stone-end at the same time. When the stone was a foot or two from the ground the boys at that end sat on the pole ...
— Round-about Rambles in Lands of Fact and Fancy • Frank Richard Stockton

... boiling water, in which to set the cans while being filled. When everything is in readiness, the fruit properly cooked, and at a boiling temperature, turn one of the cans down in the water, roll it over once or twice, empty it, and set in the shallow pan of hot water; adjust the funnel, and then place first in the can a quantity of juice, so that when the fruit is put in, no vacant places will be left for air, which is sometimes quite ...
— Science in the Kitchen. • Mrs. E. E. Kellogg

... could render it. Tempted by so much enjoyment, their ride was long. It was late, much later than they expected, when they returned home by the green lanes of pretty Willesden, and the Park was quite empty when they emerged from the Edgware-road ...
— Henrietta Temple - A Love Story • Benjamin Disraeli

... learn when he should dash his horse's skull and his own against the shell that remained. He saddled Demijohn, filled an empty jar with the soft earth of his excavations, and waited. His dramatic appearance at the instant of the door's opening was not a coincidence. It was minute calculation. Already mounted, he faced the wall, with the heavy jar poised over his head in both hands, ...
— The Missourian • Eugene P. (Eugene Percy) Lyle

... poured out two glasses and handed him the empty flask. He seemed to be very thirsty. Presently he got his birds. They proved eatable, for quails are to be had all through the summer in Italy, and he began to eat in silence. Orsino watched him with some curiosity wondering whether the quantity of wine he drank would not ...
— Don Orsino • F. Marion Crawford

... to violence. He sprang up and rushed to the ruins of the cabin, frantically tore and dug around the burnt embers, and did not leave off until he had overhauled the whole pile. There was nothing but ashes and embers. Whereupon he ran to the empty corrals, to the sheds, to the wood-pile, to the spring, and all around the space once so habitable. There was nothing to reward his fierce energy—nothing to scrutinize. Already grass was springing in the trails and upon spots that had once ...
— The U.P. Trail • Zane Grey

... literal.... Mr. Payne translates everything, and when a sentence is objectionable in Arabic, he makes it equally objectionable in English, or, rather, more so, since to the Arabs a rude freedom of speech is natural, while to us it is not." Then the reviewer turns to Burton, only, however, to empty out all the vials of his indignation—quite forgetting that the work was intended only for "curious students of Moslem manners," and not for the general public, from whom, indeed, its price alone debarred it. [494] He says: "It is bad enough in the text of the tales ...
— The Life of Sir Richard Burton • Thomas Wright

... spare savage made no hostile demonstration; he paused before the captain, with the dignity of his race, and held out his empty hands. And then, to the vast astonishment of Standish and of the others who had gathered to his support, he opened his mouth and spoke English: "Welcome, Englishmen!" said he. They must have fancied, for an instant, ...
— The History of the United States from 1492 to 1910, Volume 1 • Julian Hawthorne

... hands, cried out, 'Thank God, here it is.' But when we took up the trunk, and began to examine the supposed treasure and long-looked-for bounty, (alas! alas! how uncertain and deceitful are all human affairs!) what had we found! While we thought we were embracing a substance we grasped an empty nothing. The whole amount that was in the nest of trunks was only one dollar and a half; and all that the man possessed would not pay for his coffin. Our sudden and exquisite joy was now succeeded by a sudden and exquisite pain; and my Captain and I exhibited, for some time, most ...
— The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African - Written By Himself • Olaudah Equiano

... heavier and mightier to destroy him, than is his righteousness to save him, how can it be, that the Pharisee, that is not gracious, but a mere carnal man, somewhat reformed and painted over with a few, lean, and lousy formalities, should with his empty, partial, hypocritical righteousness, counterpoise his great, mighty, and weighty sins, that have cleaved to him in every state and condition of his, to make him odious in the sight ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... had been up to the attic to look at the incubator, knowing nothing of what had happened. Great was her amazement to find the lamp out, a basin full of broken eggs and little dead chicks, and the incubator itself deserted and empty. ...
— Illustrated Science for Boys and Girls • Anonymous

... everything; that kindly, sympathetic spirit comprehended always the soul of things; and no life, however common, rugged, or coarse, was to him empty. If he added always something of his own nobility of heart, if he did not pry out with prurient eyes the meannesses of life around him, the picture he drew was none the less true,—was, indeed, it seems to me, all the more true. Therefore I say that his early death ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 12, August, 1863, No. 70 - A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics • Various

... man, By treachery stabbed, on NANSY'S murderous day, 65 A senseless corse th' expected husband lay. A wounded man, who met us in the wood, Heavily ask'd her where my cottage stood, And told us all: she cast her eyes around As if his words had been but empty sound. 70 Then look'd to Heav'n, like one that would deny That such a thing could be beneath the sky. Again he ask'd her if she knew my name, And instantly an anguish wrench'd her frame, And left her mind imperfect. ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... Peak—paused to make a survey of the premises. When he entered, his scrutiny of the establishment was close, and he seemed to reflect with interest upon all he saw. The upper room was empty; a long table exhibited knives and forks, but there were no signs of active business. Andrew pulled a bell-rope; the summons was answered by an asthmatic woman, who received an order for tea, toast, 'watercreases', and sundry other constituents ...
— Born in Exile • George Gissing

... a better existence, too!" gently replied Wallace; "else the earth's fame were an empty shroud-it could ...
— The Scottish Chiefs • Miss Jane Porter

... up a mental picture of a ball at which he had recently been, and of a young lady to whom he had there been introduced. The lady's face, however, he could not clearly visualise, and Miss Angus reported nothing but a view of an empty ball-room, with polished floor and many lights. The gentleman made another effort, and remembered his partner with some distinctness. Miss Angus then described another room, not a ball-room, comfortably furnished, in which a girl with brown hair drawn back from her forehead, and attired in a high-necked ...
— The Making of Religion • Andrew Lang

... vague murmur, turned away from the door and lingered a moment on the sidewalk. Then she remembered that she had not paid the cab-driver. She drew a dollar from her purse and handed it to him. He touched his hat and drove off, leaving her alone in the long empty street. She wandered away westward, toward strange thoroughfares, where she was not likely to meet acquaintances. The feeling of aimlessness had returned. Once she found herself in the afternoon ...
— The Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton, Part 2 (of 10) • Edith Wharton

... erect, with his rifle across his knees, and in response to my nod of greeting he merely leered at me. I leaned my rifle against a tree, walked over to where my bed was lying, and, happening to rummage in it for something, I found the whisky flask was empty. I turned on him at once and accused him of having drunk it, to which he merely responded by asking what I was going to do about it. There did not seem much to do, so I said that we would part company—we were only four or five days from a settlement—and I would go in alone, taking one of the horses. ...
— Theodore Roosevelt - An Autobiography by Theodore Roosevelt • Theodore Roosevelt



Words linked to "Empty" :   void, go forth, empty words, offload, abandon, emptying, hollow out, ransacked, take, empty-handed, clean, drained, gut, container, withdraw, meaningless, unlade, exhaust, remove, vacant, evacuate, flow off, lifeless, excrete, empty tomb, turn, take away, hollow, nonmeaningful, suction, plundered, white, egest, fullness, discharge, pass, clear, eliminate, unload, alter, empty nester, emptiness



Copyright © 2024 e-Free Translation.com