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.

The interconsonantal excrescent p is a euphonic insertion^[1] dating from Middle English.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛmp.ti/, /ˈɛm.ti/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (UK):

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• Rhymes: -ɛmpti, -ɛmti
• Hyphenation: emp‧ty

empty (comparative emptier, superlative emptiest)

1. Devoid of content; containing nothing or nobody; vacant.

   Synonyms: unoccupied, clear, (obsolete) leer, (rare dialect) toom, clean; see also Thesaurus:empty

   Antonym: full

   an empty purse

   an empty jug

   an empty stomach

   • 1949 June 8, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 1, in Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC; republished [Australia]: Project Gutenberg of Australia, August 2001, part 2, page 103:

     […] something in the little man's appearance suggested that he would be sufficiently attentive to his own comfort to choose the emptiest table.

   • 1970, Wilfrido D. Nolledo, chapter 19, in But for the Lovers, Dalkey Archive Press, page 165:

     […] San Sebastian Church was desolate in the courtyard; emptier, lonelier inside with its pews stretched out like fallen pylons varnished by dolorous residue. From each candlelit nook stared in stony despair one after another saint, regal and rueful: proffering forgiveness, peace, a todo.

   • 2011 October 23, Phil McNulty, “Man Utd 1 - 6 Man City”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     United's stature is such that one result must not bring the immediate announcement of a shift in the balance of power in Manchester - but the swathes of empty seats around Old Trafford and the wave of attacks pouring towards David de Gea's goal in the second half emphasised that City quite simply have greater firepower and talent in their squad at present.

   • 2025 October 15, 'Mystery Shopper', “About Anglia... and high scores”, in RAIL, number 1046, page 54:

     It's a 58-minute journey with seven intermediate stops, including a reversal at Cromer - another popular destination. The train starts to empty at North Walsham, and then there is an exodus at Cromer. The coach is almost empty for the final few miles into Sheringham.

2. (computing, programming, mathematics) Containing no elements (as of a string, array, or set), opposed to being null (having no valid value).

   Antonym: non-empty

3. (obsolete) Free; clear; devoid; often with of.
   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], page 144:

     And I ſhal finde you emptie of that fault,
     Right ioyfull of your reformation.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book XI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 614-617:

     For that fair femal Troop thou sawst, that seemd
     Of Goddesses, so blithe, so smooth, so gay,
     Yet empty of all good wherein consists
     Womans domestic honour and chief praise;

4. Having nothing to carry, emptyhanded; unburdened.
   • c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:

     I hope our Ladies treaſure and our owne,
     May ſerue for ranſome to our liberties:
     Returne our Mules and emptie Camels backe,
     That we may trauell into Siria, […]

   • c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi], page 89:

     I hope it remaines not vnkindly with your Lordſhip, that I return'd you an empty Meſſenger.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 3:21:

     And I will giue this people fauour in the sight of the Egyptians, and it shall come to passe that when ye goe, ye shall not goe empty:

5. Destitute of effect, sincerity, or sense; said of language.

   empty words, or threats

   empty offer

   empty promises

   • 1697, Colley Cibber, Woman's Wit‎^[2], act V, page 190:

     […] words are but empty thanks; my future conduct best will speak my gratitude.

6. Unable to satisfy; hollow; vain.

   empty pleasures

   • 1713, [Alexander] Pope, Windsor-Forest. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 18:

     Ev'n I more sweetly pass my careless days,
     Pleas'd in the silent shade with empty praise;

7. Destitute of reality, or real existence; unsubstantial.

   empty dreams

8. Destitute of, or lacking, sense, knowledge, or courtesy.

   empty brains

   an empty coxcomb

   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii], page 203, column 2:

     Art thou thus bolden'd man by thy diſtres?
     Or elſe a rude deſpiſer of good manners,
     That in ciuility thou ſeem'ſt ſo emptie?

9. (of some female animals, especially cows and sheep) Not pregnant; not producing offspring when expected to do so during the breeding season.

   Empty cow rates have increased in recent years.

10. (obsolete, of a plant or tree) Producing nothing; unfruitful.

    an empty vine

    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 41:27:

      […] and the seuen emptie eares blasted with the East wind […]

11. Hungry.
12. (oenology) Lacking between the onset of tasting and the finish.

    Synonym: hollow

    • 1993, Robert M. Parker, Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide, page 967:

      Grotesquely vegetal, excessively oaked, empty wines were routinely produced in the mid-1980s. Since the late 1980s, however, the quality has soared.

empty (third-person singular simple present empties, present participle emptying, simple past and past participle emptied)

1. (transitive, ergative) To make empty; to remove the contents of.

   Synonyms: void, evacuate

   to empty a well or a cistern

   The cinema emptied quickly after the end of the film.

   The suspected thief was requested to empty her pockets.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ecclesiastes 11:3:

     If the clouds be full of raine, they emptie themselues vpon the earth […]

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto VIII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:

     He saddens, all the magic light
     ⁠Dies off at once from bower and hall,
     ⁠And all the place is dark, and all
     The chambers emptied of delight: […]

   • 2025 October 15, 'Mystery Shopper', “About Anglia... and high scores”, in RAIL, number 1046, page 54:

     It's a 58-minute journey with seven intermediate stops, including a reversal at Cromer - another popular destination. The train starts to empty at North Walsham, and then there is an exodus at Cromer. The coach is almost empty for the final few miles into Sheringham.

2. (intransitive) 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.

   • 1899 [2nd century], Horace White, transl., Appian:

     Of these the Rhine empties into the Northern ocean and the Danube into the Euxine.

• fill

empty (plural empties)

1. (chiefly in the plural) A container, especially a bottle, whose contents have been used up, leaving it empty.

   Put the empties out to be recycled.

   • 1954 August, “Marshalling Yard Reorganisation, Eastern Region”, in Railway Magazine, page 570:

     The east-west flow consists in the westerly direction of the agricultural and industrial products of East Anglia; imports through London and Parkeston (Harwich); special traffic in coke to the Northamptonshire ironfield; and mineral empties returning to the Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, and South Yorkshire coalfields.

   • 1960, The Iron and Coal Trades' Review - Volume 180, page 1411:

     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.

   • 2010, Don Thompson, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark, Aurum Press Limited, →ISBN:

     In 1960 Willem de Kooning said of [Leo] Castelli, ‘That son of a bitch, you could give him two beer cans and he could sell them.’ [Jasper] Johns laughed and created a sculpture of two Ballantine Ale empties. Castelli immediately sold the work to collectors Robert and Ethel Scull.

   • 2019 October, Steve Stubbs, photo caption, “'60' on the stone”, in Modern Railways, page 20:

     A number of locomotives have been drafted into the area to cover the traction shortfall, including two Class 60s: here No 60039 accelerates away from Eastleigh on the Chandlers Ford branch with the lunchtime Fareham to Whatley quarry empties [empty wagons] on 20 August 2019.

• run on empty

• dead soldier

• “empty”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “empty”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.