a. see EMPTY a.] Having nothing in the hand: chiefly in phrases, To go, come, etc., empty-handed.
a. Bringing nothing, esp. no gift. Also fig.
1613. Purchas, Pilgr., Descr. India (1864), 40. None … may come before the King with any Petition emptie-handed.
1775. Sheridan, Rivals, II. ii. I guessed you weren’t come empty-handed.
1850. W. Irving, Goldsmith, 31. His daughter … entered her husband’s family empty-handed.
1871. Rossetti, Poems, Last Confess., 22. I passed a village-fair … And thought, being empty-handed, I would take Some little present.
fig. 1855. Smedley, Occult Sc., 258. Proving … that the prescient spirit comes empty-handed.
b. Carrying nothing away.
1635. Austin, Medit., 137. Departing as he [Christ] did emptie-handed from the world.
1835. W. Irving, Tour Prairies, 119. He [the hunter] returned empty-handed.
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), II. vii. 102. At all events Swegen went away empty-handed.
