How to Use vacuous in a Sentence

vacuous

adjective

• He had a vacuous expression on his face.
• The present is vacuous, a vessel for the past, and the dead are more real than the living.
  — Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 5 Oct. 2021
• These are legally vacuous and don’t pass the laugh test.
  — Noah Feldman Bloomberg Opinion (tns), Star Tribune, 5 Nov. 2020
• The top 100 list says a whole lot about how vacuous Twitter has become.
  — Kevin Maney, Newsweek, 10 Jan. 2017
• Why are the lives and opinions of vacuous celebrities leading our news?
  — Orange County Register, 14 Feb. 2017
• This, not parsing the body language of world leaders at a vacuous meet-and-greet, is what the press should be covering.
  — Walter Russell Mead, WSJ, 10 July 2017
• The election was one of the most vacuous in recent memory.
  — Ryan C. Berg, National Review, 13 Dec. 2019
• Great idea, but the vacuous execution was a flop with the public, for all kinds of reasons.
  — Sharyn Jackson, Star Tribune, 29 Jan. 2021
• Don’t care for the song, especially the words (vacuous).
  — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 2 Nov. 2017
• But the words nasty, vacuous and damaging to democracy come to mind.
  — John Baer, Philly.com, 9 Apr. 2018
• Nice to be inside what is ever left of your vacuous melon.
  — Bryan Schott, The Salt Lake Tribune, 16 Oct. 2020
• But the vacuous smile this throwback musical leaves with you is hardly a crime.
  — Charles McNulty, latimes.com, 23 Oct. 2017
• This show began in a place of vacuous amorality and, in this fourth outing, restates once more that the people at the center of the frame are very, very bad.
  — Daniel D'addario, Variety, 18 Jan. 2022
• One problem with assessing the rise and fall of wokeness is that the term is vacuous to the point of being meaningless.
  — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 22 Feb. 2023
• Unlike the vacuous domes now home to Final Fours, this perspective is known to help shooters find their touch.
  — Michael Casagrande | [e-mail], al, 27 Mar. 2021
• Here comes Clinton Heylin to hew a path through the trash heap of vacuous biographies and inferior works.
  — John Semley, The New Republic, 26 May 2021
• Their ceaseless quest for distraction ends up exposing them to the vacuous truth of normal life.
  — Sheila Liming, The Atlantic, 31 Dec. 2022
• The verses are vacuous, the insults have no teeth, and just when the whole thing seems to be leading up to a gigantic redemptive chorus, suddenly pop!
  — Nate Jones, Vulture, 11 Jan. 2021
• And from vacuous Sidney Poitier movies and the promises after riots.
  — Gail Sheehy, Daily Intelligencer, 9 Sep. 2017
• People may have written the band off to be sort of vacuous and disposable, but that documentary really did change a lot of people's minds about the band.
  — Izzy Grinspan, Harper's BAZAAR, 29 Oct. 2021
• Both sell a vacuous simulacrum of a lifestyle that does not match up with reality.
  — T.d. Williams, The Root, 26 Apr. 2018
• The first order of business was transforming the vacuous, 40-foot-tall storefront space on the building’s eastern exposure.
  — Anna Fixsen, ELLE Decor, 24 Mar. 2021
• By contrast, grievers hear so many vacuous phrases that a little straight talk can often be a welcome relief.
  — Bruce Feiler, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2016
• Gene is a nice if somewhat vacuous young male, although not entirely human.
  — David Holahan, USA TODAY, 19 Dec. 2017
• Clusters of truly vacuous paintings — a cattle skull with a garland of pink flowers, a unicorn silhouette filled with stars — crowded the walls.
  — Brendan Fitzgerald, Longreads, 10 Aug. 2020
• Where Wodehouse tells somewhat vacuous stories in exquisite comic prose, Ephron brings wisdom and insight along with the laughs.
  — Max De Haldevang, Quartz, 27 Dec. 2019
• This is such a vague and general admonishment to be almost vacuous.
  — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 14 Sep. 2013
• But that’s what makes Stephens’ argument—that uncertainty about climate science is grounds to do less about climate change—vacuous.
  — William Saletan, Slate Magazine, 3 May 2017
• If, as now seems likely, Traven’s novel was a primary inspiration for the group’s name, why did Hans give the Gestapo such a vacuous explanation?
  — Jud Newborn, Smithsonian Magazine, 17 Feb. 2023
• In its environments—sumptuous, vacuous, cold—there is a sense of menace.
  — Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 13 Oct. 2019

Last Updated: 27 Jun 2024