to hollow out
8
4.0
- phrasal verb
:
ahuecar
- PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Fig. 8 -- A canoa, or small aqueduct, made by hollowing out a large log.
- hollowed-out log
And any of these things can become hollowed out in that way.
- And any of these things can become hollowed out in that way.
- And if you know you have more like a more long face, you might start to hollow out in the temple and under eyes.
- But meanwhile, they've hollowed out a volcano and I'm in there and imprisoned.
- After I'm done frosting the top of this, I'm going to place this cake that I hollowed out onto the top to look like an open chest.
- Like now I teach and, and the kids see that the middle is getting hollowed out, right?
- And what we're going to find is that the, let's call it spiritual force of the culture is hollowed out from within.
- It is a full loaf, hollowed out, filled with a couple pounds of bacon and peanut butter and grape Jelly.
- And all of these reasons are why these relationships can feel so, so demoralizing and feel like they're hollowing you out.
- My parents had to hollow out the heel of their shoes so my mother could take her wedding ring and her cross necklace.
- And that's why it hollows out the sort of GDP core economic engine.
- So then they would be in abundant financially, but they would be hollowed out, you know, feel a sadness about that they weren't loved.
- But we could see that he was just hollowed out like, you know, some he was going to struggle for the rest of his life.
Examples
-
I'm just going to hollow out my cheekbones a little bit more.
-
The side of this hill has been hollowed out.
-
The cities were hollowed out in weeks.
-
The town was just hollowed out.
-
The inside is hollowed out, and an opening is cut to allow the candidate entry.
Academic text (1990) -
We lived in a tangle of tunnels and rooms hollowed out of packed dirt.
Fiction book (2001) -
Montgomery himself designed the jet-board hull, hollowing out the space beneath the rider's feet to house the engine.
Academic text (2003) -
Someone had cut a large flap in the bark and hollowed out a sizeable area within the rotten wood.
Fiction book (1990) -
During his long reign, Mobutu Sese Seko slowly hollowed out the Congolese state.
Academic text (2003) -
The artist hollowed out the log to create a beautiful sculpture.
Synonyms
179
1.0
To remove everything from a container or place
91
3.2
Empty a place or container by removing everything inside
77
3.2
To remove a shape from paper or cloth using scissors
24
4.8
To remove the inside of something to make an empty space
7
3.3
Remove the inside of something with a spoon or small tool so it becomes hollow
6
7.4
To make a hollow in a surface so something fits inside
1
5.0
To remove the middle part of a fruit or vegetable, for example the core of an apple
To make a large empty space by hollowing rock or ground
Make a deep hollow inside rock, like a tunnel
How Empty
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from 'hollow' (to scoop out/remove interior material) combined with the particle 'out' (away from the interior/completely), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer 'to remove the inside, leaving an empty space'. This is a straightforward verb+particle compositional pattern found across languages and lacks any idiomatic shift, making it readily transparent.
Etymology
Hollow out creates a clear picture: you make something hollow by taking the inside out, like carving a pumpkin or scooping a log to make a canoe. That's why it means 'to remove the inside and leave an empty space inside'.