# void

Pronunciation: say "VOYD" /vɔɪd/

## Noun

1. A space with nothing in it; a vacuum.
   - Simple: An empty space with nothing in it.
   - _The probe's signal faded as it sailed out into the void._
   - _No new leader emerged to fill the void left by the founder's death._
4. An empty place; a site that contains nothing useful.
   - Simple: An empty place where there is nothing useful.
   - _Planners hope to turn the derelict void beside the railway into a park._
   - _Councils are looking for voids, such as worked-out quarries, that can take excavated earth._
7. A vast region of space between the filaments and walls of galaxies, containing very few galaxies and far less matter than average.
   - Simple: A huge part of space with very few galaxies in it.
   - _Galaxy surveys show matter arranged in filaments and walls surrounding enormous voids._
   - _The team mapped a void so large that light takes hundreds of millions of years to cross it._
8. A hollow or empty space inside a building or other structure, such as between floors or behind walls, or a cavity in the ground beneath a road or track.
   - Simple: An empty hollow space inside a building, such as between floors or walls, or under a road.
   - _The plumber cut an access panel to reach the leaking pipe in the floor void._
   - _Engineers left a narrow void between the old brick wall and the new steel frame._
12. A single act of passing urine.
   - Simple: One time that a person passes urine.
   - _After surgery, nurses measured each void to make sure his bladder was working well._
   - _Painful voids can be an early sign of a urinary tract infection._
14. A black cat, especially one regarded with affection. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A black cat, used as a funny, loving name for one.
   - _Adopted a void from the shelter today and he already owns the couch._
   - _Every photo of my two voids is just a black blob with four eyes._
15. A pocket of vapor inside a moving fluid, formed by cavitation.
   - Simple: A small pocket of vapor that forms inside a moving liquid when the pressure drops low.
   - _Engineers raised the inlet pressure so that no void could form at the pump's intake._
   - _High-speed cameras caught a void growing and collapsing on the propeller blade in a fraction of a second._
16. A cluster of neighboring vacancies, or missing atoms, inside a crystal lattice.
   - Simple: A small empty space inside a crystal where several atoms next to each other are missing.
   - _Electron microscopy revealed a void several nanometers across inside the irradiated sample._
   - _The voids gathered along grain boundaries, weakening the alloy._
17. The absence of any cards of a particular suit in a player's hand.
   - Simple: In bridge, not having any cards of one suit in your hand.
   - _A void in diamonds let South ruff the opening lead._
   - _Her splinter bid told partner that she held a singleton or a void in spades._

## Adjective

2. Having no legal force or effect, and incapable of being confirmed or ratified.
   - Simple: Not valid in law, and not able to be made valid later.
   - _A contract to commit a crime is void and cannot be enforced by either party._
   - _The government insists that the rival claims to the islands are null and void._
5. Completely lacking something, especially a particular quality such as spirit or feeling; usually followed by of.
   - Simple: Having none at all of a particular thing or quality.
   - _The report was strangely void of any mention of the accident._
   - _Critics found the film handsome but void of real emotion._
6. Empty, vacant, or unoccupied; (of an office or position) having no one holding it.
   - Simple: Empty, with nothing or no one in it. Used of a room, house, or an official job nobody holds.
   - _For months the apartment stood void while the owners argued over the lease._
   - _Engineers pumped concrete into the void spaces beneath the old floor._
10. Producing no effect; ineffectual or futile.
   - Simple: Having no effect, so it is useless.
11. Of a function or method, returning no value, and so acting as a procedure rather than a function.
   - Simple: Of a piece of computer code, doing a job but not giving back any value.
   - _Because the logging method is void, there is no result to check after calling it._
   - _In C, a void function simply ends with return or reaches its closing brace._
18. In card games such as bridge, holding no cards of a given suit.
   - Simple: In bridge, having no cards at all of one suit.
   - _Dummy was void in hearts, so declarer ruffed the opening lead there._
   - _East, void in diamonds, ruffed the second round of the suit._

## Verb

3. To make something invalid or worthless.
   - Simple: To make something no longer valid or worth anything.
   - _The bank voided the stolen checks before anyone could cash them._
   - _Any change to the terms would void the agreement entirely._
9. To empty the bladder or bowels; to discharge urine, feces, or other matter from the body.
   - Simple: To pass urine or waste out of the body, or to empty the bladder or bowels.
   - _The patient voided his bowels shortly after the enema was given._
   - _Some patients cannot void the bladder completely and need a catheter._

## Verb

13. (obsolete) To empty a place of its contents or occupants, or to leave it; to withdraw or depart. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: An old use: to empty a place, or to leave it and go away.

## Noun

19. A voidee, a light final course of spiced wine and sweetmeats served late in a feast or evening. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: In the past, a last small serving of spiced wine and sweets at the end of a feast.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–18** — Latin vacuus ultimately lies behind Vulgar Latin *vocitum, which became Old French vuit, voide, vuide (modern vide). Middle English took it as voide or voyde.
**Meaning 19** — An alteration of voidee.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/void (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).