掏空

tāokōng

verb #18,982

Meanings

1 to hollow out
2 to empty out
3 to drain (finances, energy)
4 tunneling (finance)

Characters

to dig out; to pull out

Examples

他被掏空了全部积蓄。

Tā bèi tāokōng le quánbù jīxù.

All his savings were drained.

工人们把山体掏空建了隧道。

Gōngrénmen bǎ shāntǐ tāokōng jiàn le suìdào.

The workers hollowed out the mountain to build a tunnel.

Tips

usage

掏空 is widely used figuratively: 被工作掏空了 (drained by work), 掏空家底 (drain the family fortune). In finance, it refers to tunneling -- insiders stripping a company of its assets.

Stroke Order

掏 tāo

空 kōng