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Hollowness. [Obs.] The cavity or hollowness of the place. Goodwin.

Hollow relief; sculpture in relief within a sinking made for the purpose, so no part of it projects beyond the plain surface around.

Any small cavity, or hollow place.

scribed by custom or authority. Ceremony was but devised at first To set a gloss on . . . hollow welcomes . . . But where there is true friendship there needs none. Shak. Al ceremonies are in themselves very silly things; but yet a man of the world should know them. Chesterfield.

ke a break in the regular succession of steps, in marching or walking, as by bringing the hollow of one foot against the heel of the other, and then stepping off with the foot which is in advance.

The hollow bed where a stream of water runs or may run.

The hollow at the flexure of the arm.

Funnel-shaped; -- applied particularly to a hollow muscle attached to the ball of the eye in many reptiles and mammals.

A natural reservoir; a hollow place containing water. "The wide cisterns of the lakes." Blackmore.

Having hollow spines, as some ganoid fishes.

Having hollow teeth; -- said of a group lizards. -- n.

Hollow-seeded; having the ventral face of the seedlike carpels incurved at the ends, as in coriander seed.

The hollow crust or hoof of a horse's foot, below the coronet, in which is the coffin bone. Coffin bone, the foot bone of the horse and allied animals, inclosed within the hoof, and corresponding to the third phalanx of the middle finger, or toe, of most mammals. -- Coffin joint, the joint next above the coffin bone.…

roxysmal pain in the abdomen, due to spasm, obstruction, or distention of some one of the hollow viscera. Hepatic colic, the severe pain produced by the passage of a gallstone from the liver or gall bladder through the bile duct. -- Intestinal colic, or Ordinary colic, pain due to distention of the intestines by gas.…

To fall together suddenly, as the sides of a hollow vessel; to close by falling or shrinking together; to have the sides or parts of (a thing) fall in together, or be crushed in together; as, a flue in the boiler of a steam engine sometimes collapses. A balloon collapses when the gas escapes from it. Maunder.…

as, to send one's compliments to a friend. Tedious waste of time, to sit and hear So many hollow compliments and lies. Milton. Many a compliment politely penned. Cowper. To make one a compliment, to show one respect; to praise one in a flattering way.Locke. -- To make one's compliments to, to offer formal courtesias t…

Hollow and curved or rounded; vaulted; -- said of the interior of a curved surface or line, as of the curve of the of the inner surface of an eggshell, in opposition to convex; as, a concave mirror; the concave arch of the sky.

Hollowness; concavity.

Concave or hollow on both sides; double concave.

or controlling the running out of a chain cable. The links of the cable tend to drop into hollows in the block, and thus hold fast until disengaged.