English

Alternative forms

beat all hollow

Verb

beat hollow

1. (transitive) to beat up (a person) more than usually severely
2. (transitive, colloquial, loosely) to defeat severely in various, even non-contact, competitive sports
   • 1845, Edgar Allan Poe, letter, quoted in
     2000, Poe, Edgar Allan, Thomas Ollive Mabbott, editor, Complete Poems, University of Illinois Press, page 351:

     "The Raven" has had a great run ... but I wrote it for the express purpose of running — just as I did "The Gold-Bug" ... the bird beat the bug, though, all hollow.

   • 1881, Darwin, Charles, “letter”, in Darwin Correspondence Database, retrieved 2013-07-07:

     The more civilized so-called Caucasian races have beaten the Turks hollow in the struggle for existence.

   • 1915, Buchan, John, The Thirty-Nine Steps, William Blackwood & Sons, page ??:

     ... and every night we had a game of chess, at which he beat me hollow.

Synonyms

• beat to a pulp