callow
[kal-oh]
- immature or inexperienced: a callow youth.
- (of a young bird) featherless; unfledged.
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- a recently hatched worker ant.
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Origin of callow
before 1000; Middle English, Old English calu bald; cognate with Dutch kaal, German kahl bald, OCS golŭ bare
Synonyms
See more synonyms for callow on Thesaurus.com1. untried, green, raw; naive, puerile, jejune.
Antonyms
1. mature, adult, experienced.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for callow
Contemporary Examples
Anyone going through Prozac Nation can certainly find plenty of callow moments when Wurtzel does whine.
But now that veneer is gone, and what remains is a callow man-child at odds with himself.
What's Happened to Don Draper? Why Everyone’s Favorite ‘Mad Men’ Stud Needs His Mojo BackLizzie Crocker
April 16, 2014
This is clearly not a boast; it seems, rather, a shamed admission of petty, callow cruelty.
The last thing we should do is help the callow—and dangerous—Kim continue his rule.
In this callow atmosphere, Brooke Astor would never be an icon, but she is remembered with nostalgia.
Brooke Astor’s Estate Is Auctioned, and a Friend Recalls Her FondlyBarbara Goldsmith
September 29, 2012
Historical Examples
The 87 Medium, who is at first indifferent, finally warns her callow child.
The Book of KhalidAmeen Rihani
"There speaks your callow inexperience," said he, with a pitying smile.
The Tavern KnightRafael Sabatini
But even in those days as a callow, trusting youth, he'd been smarter than Boswell.
Zero DataCharles Saphro
With bird nicknames may be mentioned Callow, unfledged, cognate with Lat.
The Romance of NamesErnest Weekley
Culpepper sprang, a flash of green, straight at the callow boy.
Privy SealFord Madox Ford
callow
- lacking experience of life; immature
- rare (of a young bird) unfledged and usually lacking feathers
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Word Origin
Old English calu; related to Old High German kalo, Old Slavonic golú bare, naked, Lithuanian galva head, Latin calvus bald
Callow
- Simon. born 1949, British actor and theatre director
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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 callow
adj.
Old English calu "bare, bald," probably from West Germanic *kalwaz (cf. Middle Dutch calu, Dutch kaal, Old High German kalo, German Kahl), perhaps from Latin or Celtic. From young birds with no feathers, meaning extended to any young inexperienced thing or creature (1570s). Apparently not from Latin calvus "bald."
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper