hollow ho.lou, sb. Forms: 1-2 holh, 3 hol3, 6- holow, hollow. [OE. holh (cf. OHG. huliwa, hulwa, MHG. hülwe, pool, puddle, slough):-OTeut. *holhwo-, app. radically related to OE. hol, holl a., hole sb., and holc, holk, cavity; but the nature of the formation is obscure. As shown under hole sb. (q.v.), hollow represents an inflexion of holh, *holw-e, *holw-es, etc., whence ME. holwe, holewe, holowe, while the inflexional type *hol-e, *hol-es, etc., fell together with hole sb. OE. holh was only sb.; it was perh. from association with hol, which was both adj. and sb., that holh was also made an adj. in early ME. : seenext word. But the history is peculiar, for while the sb. came down to 1205, in ME. only the adjective occurs; the sb. reappears c 1550, app. formed anew from the adj.; from which time both sb. and adj. have been in common use. ]
...2. spec. A depression on the earth's surface; a place or tract below the general level or surrounded by heights; a valley, a basin.
1553 Brende Q. Curtius 170 All the holowes and valeys there about rebounding with the voice of so many thousandes.1601 Holland Pliny I. 96 Within the inner compasse and hollow of Africke.1649 Providence (R.I.) Rec. (1893) II. 9 His 6 acre Lot..runneth all along on the brow or top of that Hollow.1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 258 A very narrow but deep hollow.1846 H. Beckely Hist. Vermont 55 The vallies and hollows interspersed among the mountains and hills are generally very fertile.1878 Huxley Physiogr. 16 The river then does really occupy a hollow, inclosed on three sides by high ground.1885 Miss Thackeray Mrs. Dymond 18 Can you make out the sea, Susy? Look, there it is shining in the hollow.