newDF = pd.DataFrame() #creates a new dataframe that's empty
newDF = newDF.append(oldDF, ignore_index = True) # ignoring index is optional
# try printing some data from newDF
print newDF.head() #again optional
df_empty = pd.DataFrame({'A' : []})
df_empty.empty # True
>>> df_empty = pd.DataFrame({'A' : []})
>>> df_empty
Empty DataFrame
Columns: [A]
Index: []
>>> df_empty.empty
True