emptyhanded

Adjective

1. With nothing in one's hands.
   • Near-synonyms: unburdened, unencumbered, unladen
   • If, for example, Oswald was not "emptyhanded" but, as the original reports had it, had been drinking a Coca-Cola — there was a vending machine in the lunchroom where the encounter occurred — then he almost certainly...

   Synonyms: unburdened unencumbered unladen

   Antonyms: full-handed

2. Impoverished; having no money or resources.
   • As he walked about in the village, Isaac saw those inhabitants who had come to the Land emptyhanded and now own fields and vineyards and houses full of good things, not by virtue of observing the Torah and pious deeds,...

   Synonyms: almsless arm badly off bankrupt beggared beggarly boracic broke broken broker than the Ten Commandments depauperate destitute dirt poor disadvantaged down and out down at heel down on one's luck down on one's uppers empty-handed farthingless feeling the pinch flat goodless groatless

   Antonyms: full-handed

3. Having nothing to offer.
   • I come to this conference bearing neither a new slogan nor a basket full of gifts. But I do not come emptyhanded. I come with the promise of the Government and people of the United States to work with you... - 1977, The...

   Antonyms: full-handed

4. Having received or acquired nothing.
   • Returning "emptyhanded" doesn't always mean that you didn't get what you set out for. - 1984, Field & Stream - Volume 89, page 26:
   • "Have you got anything, my dear? If you are emptyhanded, go emptyhanded." But the shopper said, "Sisters, stop teasing him, for by God, he served me well today; no one else would have been as patient with me. Whatever...
   • Antar neglected his boat and his nets for three days on end, and when, on the entreaties of his wife and children, he brought himself to go back to sea, he came back in the evening emptyhanded. - 1987, Michel Tournier,...
5. Having nothing to offer; unable to give what was promised.
   • ...he promised to get concessions on container handling, and he cannot go to the dockers emptyhanded. - 1972, The Economist - Volume 244, page 59:
   • We want to make them aware of all of the programs so these people don't go home emptyhanded. Many times they go home emptyhanded because the person has been trained with the tunnel vision where he is thinking only of...
6. Unarmed.
   • ...for he has come on an ambassage and he has come emptyhanded (not armed). - 1999, Hephzibah Jesudasan, G. John Samuel, P. Thiagarajan, Count-down from Solomon, Or, The Tamils Down the Ages Through Their Literature,...