vacuitous

Adjective

vacuitous (comparative more vacuitous, superlative most vacuitous)

1. Lacking substance; trivial; meaningless.
   • He took Miss Lynes to supper; he outshone himself in vacuitous small-talk during the whole time that the meal lasted ; he held undisputed possession of her during that hour especially dear to flirtation, between the time when supper ended and the departure of the guests.1864, London society - Volume 6, page 374
   • From his excellency, the President of this great Republic, down to the President of the Rural Debating Society, a patient and long-suffering people has been pelted, so to speak, by them with this too often vacuitous literature for lo, these many years.1888, Ohio State Medical Society, Transactions of the Annual Meeting, page 33
2. Deficient; lacking.
   • The doing of an act which might not lawfully be done, is nugatory, ineffective and vacuitous.1972, Gunnar Myrdal, Seth S. King, Asian Drama; an Inquiry Into the Poverty of Nations
   • In addition, ectomorphic or very thin, nervous people may be constitutionally yin vacuitous from birth.1994, Bob Flaws, Imperial Secrets of Health and Longevity, page 33
3. Empty.
   • On the one hand there will be vacuitous chambers and on the other hand too much air.1907, Colorado Medicine - Volume 4, page 285
   • The Sun, the moon, the planets and the stars are, undoubtedly, moulded after the same pattern of immense cosmic shells with vacuitous interiors.1920, John Martin Russell, Solar empyrean; or, Cosmos and the mysteries expounded, page 75
4. (obsolete) Lacking thought or intelligence.
   • The half-opened mouth, and consequently the vacuitous expression of countenance, the thickness of breathing, which sometimes could be heard across the room, and the nasal speech, all plainly indicated the difficulty she laboured under.1851, James Yearsley, A Treatise on the enlarged tonsil and elongated uvula, etc, page 75
   • Persons thus troubled are obliged at all times to keep their lips apart, or their mouth open, to enable them to breathe, and in time the features acquire a contracted and vacuitous expression, even in the most intelligent.1876, William Harvey, On Deafness and Noises in the Ear Arising from Rheumatism

   Synonyms:

   vacuous