emptiness (emptines)

[ The moderation of slepe must be measured by helthe and syckenes, by age, by time, by empty ne or fulne e of the body, & by naturall complexions. Sir T. Elyot , Castle of Health, ii. His coffers sound With hollow poverty and emptine . Shak., 2 Hen. IV., i. 3. empty And thaugh the brigge hadde ben all clene empty it hadde not be no light thinge for to haue pa ed. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), ii. 288. Tears of the widower, when he sees A late-lost form that sleep reveals, And moves his doubtful arms, and feels Her place is empty. Tennyson, In Memoriam, xiii. At the Round Table of King Arthur there was left always one seat empty for him who should accomplish the adventure of the Holy Grail. Lowell, Among my Books, 2d ser., p. 124. 2. Void; devoid; destitute of some e ential quality or component. Art thou thus bolden'd, man, by thy distre , Or else a rude despiser of good manners, That in civility thou seem'st so empty ? Shak., As you Like it, ii. 7. They are honest, wise, Not empty of one ornament of man. Beau , and Fl ., Knight of Malta, i. 3. 3. Destitute of force, effect, significance, or value; without valuable content; meaningle : as, empty words; empty compliments. A word may be of great credit with several authors, and be by them made use of as if it stood for some real being; but yet if he that reads cannot frame any distinct idea of that being, it is certain to him a mere empty sound, without a meaning, and he learns no more by all that is said of it, or attributed to it, than if it were affirmed only of that bare empty sound. Locke , Conduct of Understanding, § 28. In nice balance, truth with gold she weighs, And solid pudding against empty praise. Pope , Dunciad, i. 54. A concept is to be considered as empty and as referring to no object, if the synthesis which it contains does not belong to experience. Kant , Critique of Pure Reason, tr. by Max Müller. Death and misery But empty names were grown to be. William Morris , Earthly Paradise, I. 366. 4. Destitute of knowledge or sense; ignorant: as, an empty coxcomb. Gaping wonder of the empty crowd. William Morris , Earthly Paradise, III. 160. 5. Forlorn from destitution or deprivation; desolate; deserted. She [Nineveh] is empty , and void, and waste. Nahum ii. 10. Rose up against him a great fiery wall, Built of vain longing and regret and fear, Dull empty loneline , and blank despair. William Morris, Earthly Paradise, III. 359. fasting. Monks, anchorites, and the like, after much emptine , become melancholy. Burton , Anat. of Mel., p. 611. 3. Void space; a vacuum. Nor could another in your room have been, ality; unsubstantial; unsatisfactory: as, empty air; empty dreams; empty pleasures. Frivolities which seemed empty as bubbles. Charlotte Brontë , Shirley, 1. 4. Want of solidity or substance. "Tis this which causes the graces and the loves. to subsist in the emptine of light and shadow. Dryden, tr. of Dufresnoy's Art of Painting, Pref. 5. Unsatisfactorine ; insufficiency to satisfy the mind or heart; worthle ne . O frail estate of human things, Now to our cost your emptine we know. Dryden. Form the judgment about the worth or emptine of things here, according as they are or are not of use in relation to what is to come after. Bp . Atterbury . 6. Want of understanding or knowledge; vacuity of mind; inanity. Eternal smiles his emptine betray. Pope, Prol. to Satires, 1. 315. Knowledge is now no more a fountain seal'd: Drink deep, until the habits of the slave, The sins of emptine , go ip and spite And slander, die. Tennyson, Prince , ii. =Syn. 5. Vanity, hollowne , nothingne . emption (emp's hon), n. [ He that stands charged with my Lordes House for the houll Yeir, if he maye po ible, shall be at all Faires, where the groice Emptions shall be boughte for the House for the houll Yeir, as Wine, Wax, Beiffes, Multons, Wheite and Malt. (1512.) Quoted in Bourne's Pop. Antiq. (1777), p. 360.