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Definition
lacking intelligent thoughtIn addition to usage such as "vacuous comments" that indicate a lack of intelligent thought; vacuous can also indicate a lack of attention as in "a vacuous stare", or an absence of meaning as in "a vacuous life".
More rarely, and especially in older usage, vacuous may refer to physical emptiness — such as "a vacuous warehouse".
- It is a vacuous, feel-good philosophy.
vacuous = lacking intelligent thought
- Her vacuous comments were either off topic or erroneous.
- He had that vacuous look that comes from too much medication.
- Her credentials do not add weight to such vacuous comments.
- She closed her eyes an instant, and the vacuous routine of the life she had chosen stretched before her like a long white road without dip or turning...Edith Wharton -- The House of Mirth
- A sudden animation replaced the vacuous stare of the blue eyes.Louis Joseph Vance -- The Fortune Hunter
- It was bland and vacuous.
- His vacant eyes moved across the crowd of amused onlookers, he slowly mirrored their smiles and finally broke into an uncertain grin at the joke which he obviously did not understand. I felt sick inside as I looked at his dull, vacuous smile—the wide, bright eyes of a child, uncertain but eager to please,Daniel Keyes -- Flowers for Algernon
- A vacuous crooning noise came from her slack mouth.Stephen King -- The Shining
- His eyes seemed wandering, vacuous again.Stephen King -- Cujo
- He suddenly opened the medicine cabinet. He stared rather vacuously into it for a few seconds, as though he had forgotten why he opened it,J.D. Salinger -- Franny and Zooey
- Four other monks surrounded him like disciples, all dressed in the same tattered robes, all bald, all smiling Cacciato's vacuous smile.Tim O'Brien -- Going After Cacciato
- For now she had to figure a way to separate this vacuous girl from her mirrored sunglasses.Eoin Colfer -- Artemis Fowl
- people were doing "stunts" all over the garden, while happy, vacuous bursts of laughter rose toward the summer sky.F. Scott Fitzgerald -- The Great Gatsby
- Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss Mary Sutherland.Arthur Conan Doyle -- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
- ESTRAGON: I've forgotten. (Chews.) ... Ah yes, now I remember.
VLADIMIR: Well?
ESTRAGON: (his mouth full, vacuously). We're not...Samuel Beckett -- Waiting for Godot - Only Reba, with her light pimply skin and deferential manner, looked as though her simplicity might also be vacuousness.Toni Morrison -- Song of Solomon
- "Blood," Henry said, and smiled with a kind of vacuous surprise.Stephen King -- Carrie
- In the study of the profession to which he had looked forward all his life he found irritation and vacuity as well as...Sinclair Lewis -- Arrowsmith
- he would not become a ... vain, vacuous speaker;Hermann Hesse -- Siddhartha
vacuous = lacking intelligent thought
vacuous = lacking intelligent thought
vacuous = lacking intelligent thought
vacuous = lacking intelligent thought
vacuous = lacking intelligent thought
vacuous = lacking intelligent thought
vacuously = without thought
vacuous = lacking intelligent thought
vacuous = lacking intelligent thought
vacuous = lacking intelligent thought
vacuous = lacking intelligent thought
vacuously = without intelligent thought
vacuousness = the lack of intelligent thought
(Editor's note: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means state or degree of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)
vacuous = lacking intelligent thought
vacuity = lack of intelligent thought
vacuous = lacking intelligent thought