callous
[kal-uh s]
- made hard; hardened.
- insensitive; indifferent; unsympathetic: They have a callous attitude toward the sufferings of others.
- having a callus; indurated, as parts of the skin exposed to friction.
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- to make or become hard or callous.
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Origin of callous
1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin callōsus hard-skinned, tough, equivalent to call(um) tough skin, any hard substance + -ōsus -ous
Synonyms
See more synonyms for callous on Thesaurus.comAntonyms
1. soft. 2. sensitive.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for callously
Contemporary Examples
And in places where fundamentalism is most severe, women are callously repressed.
So were the Pakistanis: Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Army chief, said the men had been “callously targeted.”
It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off.
No matter how callously defined, neither America's interests -- nor the world's -- are served by the denial of human aspirations.
Historical Examples
Callously, she had struck right and left for room to get to her feet.
Marjorie Dean, College SophomorePauline Lester
“Send them a Christmas card, and be done with it,” cried Jill callously.
Betty TrevorMrs. G. de Horne Vaizey
He stared in wonder at his own wife as she told him his own heart so callously.
The RainbowD. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence
“Then I just took her knife and her food, and went,” the woman said, callously.
The Woman from OutsideHulbert Footner
"You can say that for me, too," the lanista agreed, callously.
TriplanetaryEdward Elmer Smith
callous
- unfeeling; insensitive
- (of skin) hardened and thickened
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- pathol to make or become callous
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Word Origin
C16: from Latin callōsus; see callus
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for callously
callous
adj.
c.1400, "hardened," in the physical sense, from Latin callosus "thick-skinned," from callus, callum "hard skin" (see callus). The figurative sense of "unfeeling" appeared in English by 1670s. Related: Callously; callousness.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
callous
(kăl′əs)- Of, relating to, or characteristic of a callus or callosity.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.