Word Confusion: Hallow versus Hollow

Plural for the noun: hallows
Gerund: hallowing

Third person present verb: hallows
Past tense or past participle: hallowed
Present participle: hallowing

Plural for the noun: hollows
Gerund: hollowing

Third person present verb: hollows
Past tense or past participle: hollowed
Present participle: hollowing

A shout ²

• [Also hulloo] A cry

Verb, transitive:
Honor as holy ¹

• Make holy
• Consecrate
• Consider sacred
• Venerate

To shout, especially to urge on dogs for hunting ²

• A cry
• A hulloo

• [Of a thing] Having a depression in its surface
• Concave
• [Of a sound] Echoing, as though made in or on an empty container

Without significance or substance

• Meaningless
• Insincere
• False

Sunken, as the cheeks or eyes

[Of sound] Not resonant

• Dull, muffled, or deep

Without real or significant worth

• Meaningless

Hungry

• Having an empty feeling

Adverb:
In a false, meaningless manner ¹

So as to have an empty sound

[Often used with all] In a way that reflects a lack of real value, sincerity, or substance

[British; informal] To defeat someone thoroughly and convincingly

[Colloquial, as part of a phrase] Completely

Noun:
A hole or depression in something ¹

• A small valley

An empty space within anything

• A hole, depression, or cavity
• A void
• An emptiness

[Foundry] A concavity connecting two surfaces otherwise intersecting at an obtuse angle

[hollow casting] A method to suppress displacement of the core during casting when making hollow blades by applying the lost wax method using a core

[Oxford hollow] A tube of thick archival paper or pasteboard cut to the exact height and thickness required for the book spine

Verb:
Urge or call by shouting ²

• [Also hallo, holloa] To hollo

Verb, intransitive:
To become hollow or empty ¹

Verb, transitive:
Form by making a hole ¹

• Make a depression in

[Often followed by out] To make scoop or empty out

• To scoop or form by making concave

On All-hallow eve the missus and I visited a large cemetery.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows brought new insight.

“Then away they went from merry Sherwood / And into Yorkshire he did hie / And the King did follow, with a hoop and a hallow / But could not come him nigh” (Child).

“I told them, the sherriff could not be admitted on board this time of night, on which they set up a hallow and rowed as fast as they could towards the vessel’s bows” (Staples).

Verb, transitive:
The Ganges is hallowed as a sacred, cleansing river.

The priest hallowed the wine.

“Hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein” (Jer 27 XXIV).

A theater is a sort of church, hallowing the land on which it sits by its very presence.

“The worst of our education is that Christianity does not recognize and hallow Sex” (Stevenson).

They are the most hallowed of all law-enforcement agencies.

Lincoln’s memorable words at the Gettysburg battlefield, “we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow — this ground”.

Pete has hollow legs.

Her hollow cheeks, her sunken eyes, her chapped lips are all signs of ill health.

It was a hollow cough.

The result was a hollow victory.

He was known for his hollow promises.

They were only hollow compliments.

I feel absolutely hollow, so let’s eat.

Adverb:
The politician’s accusations rang hollow.

We beat them hollow.

The sound echoed hollow in the cave.

Their threats rang hollow.

“It was an ongoing story that has the old cowboy-and-Indians genre beat hollow” (Bannon).

Noun:
It’s in a hollow at the base of a large tree.

The house fell behind as they climbed out of the hollow.

They took the sheep to graze in the hollow.

There was a hollow behind the wall.

My life is a hollow.

“Author Washington Irving made Sleepy Hollow, New York, famous” (Curry).

“If you’ve ever been to West Virginia, there’s lots of hollows, a.k.a. hollers” (Curry).

Hollow metal casting was developed by William Britain in 1893 to create a product that used less material and was lighter in weight (Hollow Casting).

“An Oxford hollow . . . strengthen[s] the spine and allow[s] the book to be opened flat more easily” (Hollick).

Verb:
“He has hollowed the hounds.” – Sir Walter Scott

Verb, intransitive:
His cheeks had hollowed since last I saw him.

The stairs have been hollowed by centuries of use.

Verb, transitive:
A tunnel was hollowed out in a mountain range.

Flora’s laugh hollowed her cheeks.

We still need to hollow out the pumpkin.

They’ll have to hollow out a log.

Ben hollowed out a nest in the sand.

The boats hollowed out of logs were surprisingly seaworthy.

1. Old English hālgian (verb), hālga (noun), is of Germanic origin and related to the Dutch and the German heiligen, also to holy.
2. Middle English halowen, from halow ‎(interjection), from the Old English ēalā ‎meaning O!, alas!, oh!, lo!, interjection), probably conflated with the Old French halloer.

1. Old English holh meaning cave; obscurely related to hole.
2. From the French holà meaning ho there!