empty-handed
69
3.1
- adjective
- /ˈɛmptiˈhændɪd/
- Despite their efforts, the team left the negotiation table empty-handed and without a deal.
- come away empty-handed
- leave empty-handed
- go home empty-handed
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Watch on YouTubeAnd so we left a bit empty handed, but we weren't giving up.
- And so we left a bit empty handed, but we weren't giving up.
- But he made a poor impression and left empty handed.
- It rains and you, you had three nights, which is a lot, and you go home empty handed.
- I feel like after I've done all that in the hope that you know something's going to happen, I sit there at the end and I'm still empty handed.
- Yes, that a lot has been taken away from him, but that maybe we could still make a case that he's not totally empty handed at the end of the novel.
- And so they get so little for their effort that they wonder when they're at home empty handed in bed.
Examples
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I'm not walking out of this bank empty-handed.
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I would arrive empty-handed to meet my intended, with no finery to adorn me.
Fiction book (1999) -
And here I was, worried we might turn up empty-handed.
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We're getting out of here, and we're not leaving empty-handed.
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I'm not going home empty-handed.
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"Our daughter is not for sale," said Barbara and Jan, and sent the visitors away empty-handed.
Fiction book (2000) -
More often than not, those who walk away empty-handed look all embarrassed because they haven't bought anything.
Fiction book (1998) -
I regret to inform you that we've returned empty-handed.
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"At day's end, though empty-handed, Rowen was still set on finding the emerald necklace.
Fiction book (2000) -
Like Markos, he vanished from sight in the trees and shortly reappeared empty-handed.
Fiction book (2002)
Synonyms
4
4.0
Not getting anything for work or effort
Antonyms
How Successful
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Empty-handed comes from the two parts empty ('not full') and handed (from 'hand'), so it makes a clear picture of someone whose hands hold nothing. That's why to be empty-handed means to come back without anything or to fail to get what you wanted.