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 callousness
Contemporary Examples
Two basic characteristics not related to memory are apathy and indifference or callousness.
Does Donald Sterling Have Dementia? And Does That Make Him Any Less of a Racist?Robert Silverman
May 23, 2014
Cry out against the callousness toward the first responders to the Twin Towers on 9/11.
Some readers were upset by the callousness of hedge fund traders.
Historical Examples
Perhaps the fate of Niobe is no fable, but a type of the callousness of our nature.
Vivian GreyEarl of Beaconsfield, Benjamin Disraeli
For all my callousness I was sick and unmanned by that which had befallen.
The Suitors of YvonneRaphael Sabatini
She looked at him in anger almost at what seemed a callousness.
Mistress WildingRafael Sabatini
Her callousness was like a gust of wind upon the living embers of his fears.
St. Martin's SummerRafael Sabatini
The callousness which he displayed in saying all this deeply pained his pious father.
MelomaniacsJames Huneker
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 callousness
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.