hollow out

phrasal verb

hollowed out; hollowing out; hollows out

1

: to remove the inside of (something) : to make an empty space in (something)

The kids were hollowing out pumpkins.

a hollowed-out log

2

: to form (something) by digging or cutting the inside of something

Workers hollowed out a tunnel through the mountain.

Examples of hollow out in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The primary reasons: the Bush-era wars that weighed heaviest on working-class families, the 2008 financial crisis and its (bipartisan) bailouts, and the global trade consensus that hollowed out manufacturing towns. —Michael Catanzaro, The Orlando Sentinel, 21 July 2025

Dying trees are left carved up and hollowed out, lacking access to internal water or nutrients. —Sophie Hartley, IndyStar, 16 July 2025

Decades of sweeping sanctions have eroded the economic foundations of everyday life, hollowed out state capacity, and left a broken social contract. —Sanam Vakil, Time, 26 June 2025

But within days the Trump administration more explicitly embraced the attacks on Iran as Israel bombarded Tehran and killed a series of top military officials, hollowing out Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s inner circle. —Jesse Byrnes, The Hill, 22 June 2025

Rhymes for hollow out

• roundabout
• runabout
• sauerkraut
• thereabout
• turnabout
• about
• bailout
• blackout
• blowout
• breakout
• burnout
• buyout