empty-handed

Adjective complement with noun phrase

• leave: You're in real danger of leaving the scene completely empty-handed!
• go: He carries home fine things from the spoils of Troy, while we who went the same journey return empty-handed.

Modifying Another Word

• away: You must be getting sick and tired of visiting the Western Union agent, only to be sent away empty-handed.
• home: Tonight promised to be like the others; I would go home empty-handed.
• back: You can travel to the ends of the earth but you will come back empty-handed.
• up: If you come up empty-handed, try waiting a year and trying again.
• out: In the end I came out empty-handed yet again.

Used with adjective complement

• flee: The raiders fled empty-handed, leaving the guard lying seriously injured in the street.
• come: In the end I came out empty-handed yet again.
• leave: You can do all things, You give all things, You fill all things: only the sinner do You leave empty-handed.
• return: July 24: The Youth team out in Northern Ireland will return home empty-handed this year.
• go: Tonight promised to be like the others; I would go home empty-handed.
• escape: The suspects, who had been working for more than an hour to free the machines, were forced to escape empty-handed.