empty-handed
Carrying absolutely nothing
Empty-handed means carrying nothing, especially when you expected or hoped to bring something back: The hunters returned empty-handed.
It suggests failure or disappointment—arriving without the prize, leaving without what you came for: I went to three stores looking for that book and came home empty-handed.
Completely without money
- brokeLacking any funds
- impoverishedExtremely lacking in money
- needyWanting in essentials
- deprivedLacking necessities
wanting · lacking · poor · stripped · bereft · dispossessed · bankrupted · ruined
Lack of success
- defeatVictory over another
- futileIncapable of producing results
- fruitlessProducing no useful outcome
- vainExcessively proud or futile
unproductive · unavailing · unrewarded · thwarted · foiled · rebuffed · rejected · denied
Receiving nothing earned
- skunkedBeaten without scoring
- zeroNumerical absence of quantity
- zilchInformal term for naught
- nadaBorrowed zero
strike-out · bust · washout · blank · miss · whiff · dry · barren
Lacking necessary preparation
- unreadyNot yet prepared
- unarmedHaving no weapons
- defenselessWithout means to resist
- vulnerableOpen to attack
exposed · unprotected · lacking · without · resourceless · toolless · weaponless · underprepared
penniless
Completely without money
- brokeLacking any funds
- impoverishedExtremely lacking in money
- needyWanting in essentials
deprived · wanting · lacking · poor · stripped · bereft · dispossessed · bankrupted · ruined · resourceless
failure
Lack of success
vain · unproductive · unavailing · unrewarded · thwarted · foiled · rebuffed · rejected · denied · refused
unrewarded
Receiving nothing earned
nada · strike-out · bust · washout · blank · miss · whiff · dry · barren
ill-equipped
Lacking necessary preparation
- unreadyNot yet prepared
- unarmedHaving no weapons
- defenselessWithout means to resist
vulnerable · exposed · unprotected · lacking · without · resourceless · toolless · weaponless · underprepared · helpless
- ___-handed wordsbackhanded, offhanded, underhanded, ambidextrous
- unreadyunprepared, ill-prepared, ill-equipped, unready, not ready
- povertypoverty line, poor, poverty rate, impoverished, generational poverty
empty-handedladen
Heavily weighted down
loaded · full-handed · carrying · burdened · bearing gifts
empty-handedsuccessful
Having achieved one's aims
rewarded · triumphant · victorious · prosperous · enriched
hand, empty, hands, emptiness, handed, handing, unhand, unhanded, unhands