Library / English Dictionary

VOID

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

An empty area or space

Example:

without their support he'll be ruling in a vacuum

Synonyms:

emptiness; vacancy; vacuum; void

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Hypernyms ("void" is a kind of...):

space (an empty area (usually bounded in some way between things))

Derivation:

void (clear (a room, house, place) of occupants or empty or clear (a place or receptacle) of something)

void (containing nothing)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The state of nonexistence

Synonyms:

nihility; nothingness; nullity; void

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("void" is a kind of...):

nonentity; nonexistence (the state of not existing)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "void"):

thin air (nowhere to be found in a giant void)

Derivation:

void (declare invalid)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Containing nothing

Example:

the earth was without form, and void

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

empty (holding or containing nothing)

Derivation:

void (an empty area or space)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Lacking any legal or binding force

Example:

null and void

Synonyms:

null; void

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

invalid (having no cogency or legal force)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

 III. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Excrete or discharge from the body

Synonyms:

empty; evacuate; void

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "void" is one way to...):

egest; eliminate; excrete; pass (eliminate from the body)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "void"):

suction (empty or clean (a body cavity) by the force of suction)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

voidance (the act of removing the contents of something)

voider (a person who defecates)

voiding (the bodily process of discharging waste matter)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Take away the legal force of or render ineffective

Example:

invalidate a contract

Synonyms:

invalidate; vitiate; void

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "void" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

voidable (capable of being rescinded or voided)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Clear (a room, house, place) of occupants or empty or clear (a place or receptacle) of something

Example:

The concert hall was voided of the audience

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "void" is one way to...):

empty (make void or empty of contents)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

void (an empty area or space)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Declare invalid

Example:

void a plea

Synonyms:

annul; avoid; invalidate; nullify; quash; void

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "void" is one way to...):

cancel; strike down (declare null and void; make ineffective)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "void"):

set aside (annul (a legal decision))

break (invalidate by judicial action)

stet (printing: cancel, as of a correction or deletion)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

void (the state of nonexistence)

voidable (capable of being rescinded or voided)

voider (an official who can invalidate or nullify)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Porosity, the void space in rock, was conventionally thought to be produced when water flows through rock, resulting in minerals that chemically dissolve.

(Study explores how rock expands near soil surface in Sierra Nevada, National Science Foundation)

They include urinary frequency and urgency, dysuria, nocturia, incomplete voiding, and poor stream during urination.

(Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms, NCI Thesaurus)

This results in a relaxation of bladder smooth muscle, a reduction of involuntary muscle contractions and delays the initial desire to void.

(Esoxybutynin Chloride, NCI Thesaurus)

Far from being an empty void, the space around Earth is a jungle of invisible fields and tiny particles.

(FIREBIRD II and NASA Mission Locate Whistling Space Electrons’ Origins, NASA)

The map also provides a foundation for the upcoming new version of Google's ocean maps; it will fill large voids between shipboard depth profiles.

(New map uncovers thousands of unseen seamounts on ocean floor, NSF)

A marital status in which a voidable marriage is legally declared null and void, as though it never existed.

(Annulled, NCI Thesaurus)

This winter has been passed most miserably, tortured as I have been by anxious suspense; yet I hope to see peace in your countenance and to find that your heart is not totally void of comfort and tranquillity.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

It left a great void in him, somewhat akin to hunger, but a void which ached and ached, and which food could not fill, At times, when he paused to contemplate the carcasses of the Yeehats, he forgot the pain of it; and at such times he was aware of a great pride in himself,—a pride greater than any he had yet experienced.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

It was my intention to have stopped there, and to have said nothing of that event which has created a void in my life which the lapse of two years has done little to fill.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I got up, several times, and looked out; but could see nothing, except the reflection in the window-panes of the faint candle I had left burning, and of my own haggard face looking in at me from the black void.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)