1. hollow, hollowed , epithet of ships, which in early times were hollowed out of trees, (Homer); later, κοίλη ναῦς was the hold of the ship, (Herdotus Historicus); so, ἡ κοίλη alone, (Theocritus Poeta Bucolicus):—;of the Trojan horse, κ. λόχος, κ. δόρυ (Odyssey by Homer); κ. κάπετος, of a grave, (Iliad by Homer); κ. δέμνια, of the bed when no one is in it , (Sophocles Tragicus)

2. of Places, lying in a hollow or forming a hollow , κοίλη Λακεδαίμων the vale of L. (Odyssey by Homer); κ. Θεσσαλία (Herdotus Historicus); κ. Ἄργος (Sophocles Tragicus); τὰ Κοῖλα τῆς Εὐβοίας (Herdotus Historicus); ἡ Κοιλή the valley of the Ilissus, (Herdotus Historicus):—; κ. λιμήν of a harbour lying between high cliffs , (Odyssey by Homer); κ. αἰγιαλός an embayed beach, (Odyssey by Homer):—; κ. ὁδός a hollow way, (Iliad by Homer):—; κ. ποταμός a river nearly empty of water, (Thucydides) (so Virgil, cava flumina) : metaphorically of the voice, hollow , μυκάσατο κοῖλον (Theocritus Poeta Bucolicus); φθέγγεσθαι κοῖλον (Lucian)

3. as Substantive κοῖλον, ου, τό, a hollow, cavity, ravine , (Plato Philosophus); like κοιλία, of the cavities in the body, τὰ κ. γαστρός (Euripides); also, ἐν τῷ κοίλῳ καὶ μυχῷ τοῦ λιμένος (Thucydides) (ML)