Empty vs Without - What's the difference?
empty | without |
Devoid of content; containing nothing or nobody; vacant.
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=October 23
, author=Phil McNulty
, title=Man Utd 1 - 6 Man City
, work=BBC Sport
(computing, programming) Containing no elements (as of a string or array), opposed to being null (having no valid value).
(obsolete) Free; clear; devoid; often with of .
* Milton
* Shakespeare
Having nothing to carry; unburdened.
* Shakespeare
* Bible, Exodus iii. 21
Destitute of effect, sincerity, or sense; said of language.
* Cibber
Unable to satisfy; hollow; vain.
* Alexander Pope
Destitute of reality, or real existence; unsubstantial.
(obsolete) Producing nothing; unfruitful; said of a plant or tree.
* Bible, Genesis xli. 27
Destitute of, or lacking, sense, knowledge, or courtesy.
* Shakespeare
(ergative) To make empty; to void; to remove the contents of.
* Bible, Eccl. xi. 3
A container, especially a bottle, whose contents have been used up, leaving it empty.
(archaic, or, literary) outside, externally
* c.1600s , (William Shakespeare), (Macbeth)
* 1900 , (Ernest Dowson), Benedictio Domini , lines 13-14
* 1904 , (Arthur Conan Doyle), (The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez) (Norton 2005, p.1100)
Lacking something.
Outside of, beyond.
:
*(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
*:Without the gate / Some drive the cars, and some the coursers rein.
*(Thomas Burnet) (1635?-1715)
*:Eternity, before the world and after, is without our reach.
*1967 , (George Harrison),
*:Life goes on within you and without you.
Not having, containing, characteristic of, etc.
:
*, chapter=22
, title= *1967 , (George Harrison),
*:Life goes on within you and without you.
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Not doing or not having done something.
:
:
*
*:Athelstan Arundel walked home […], foaming and raging.He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.
Unless, except (introducing a clause).
*:
*:And whanne this old man had sayd thus he came to one of tho knyghtes and sayd I haue lost alle that I haue sette in the / For thou hast rulyd the ageynste me as a warryour and vsed wrong werres with vayne glory more for the pleasyr of the world than to please me / therfor thow shalt be confounded withoute thow yelde me my tresour
*1913 , DH Lawrence, Sons and Lovers , Penguin, 2006, p.264:
*:‘Why,’ he blurted, ‘because they say I've no right to come up like this—without we mean to marry—’
*1883 , (Howard Pyle), (The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood)
*:But in the meantime Robin Hood and his band lived quietly in Sherwood Forest, without showing their faces abroad, for Robin knew that it would not be wise for him to be seen in the neighborhood of Nottingham, those in authority being very wroth with him.
As an adjective empty
is devoid of content; containing nothing or nobody; vacant.As a verb empty
is to make empty; to void; to remove the contents of.As a noun empty
is a container, especially a bottle, whose contents have been used up, leaving it empty.As an adverb without is
outside, externally.As a preposition without is
outside of, beyond.As a conjunction without is
unless, except (introducing a clause).empty
English
Adjective
(er)- an empty''' purse; an '''empty''' jug; an '''empty stomach
citation, page= , passage=United's stature is such that one result must not bring the immediate announcement of a shift in the balance of power in Manchester - but the swathes of empty seats around Old Trafford and the wave of attacks pouring towards David de Gea's goal in the second half emphasised that City quite simply have greater firepower and talent in their squad at present.}}
- that fair female troop empty of all good
- I shall find you empty of that fault.
- an empty messenger
- When ye go ye shall not go empty .
- empty words, or threats
- Words are but empty thanks.
- empty pleasures
- pleas'd in the silent shade with empty praise
- empty dreams
- an empty vine
- seven empty ears blasted with the east wind
- empty''' brains; an '''empty coxcomb
- that in civility thou seem'st so empty
Synonyms
* (devoid of content) unoccupied, clear, , toom, cleanAntonyms
* fullDerived terms
* empty-handed * emptiness * empty product * empty set * empty sumVerb
- to empty a well or a cistern
- The cinema emptied quickly after the end of the film.
- The clouds empty themselves upon the earth.
Antonyms
* fillDerived terms
* empty the tankNoun
(empties)- Put the empties out to be recycled.
Derived terms
* emptiness * run on emptywithout
English
Alternative forms
* withoute (archaic); wythoute, wythowt (obsolete), wythowte (obsolete)Adverb
(en adverb)- Macbeth: There's blood upon your face
- Murderer: 'tis Banquo's then
- Macbeth: 'tis better thee without then he within.
- Strange silence here: without , the sounding street
- Heralds the world's swift passage to the fire
- I knew that someone had entered the house cautiously from without .
- Being from a large, poor family, he learned to live without .
Preposition
(English prepositions)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.}}
Travels and travails, passage=Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema.}}