adjective
-
lacking experience of life; immature
-
rare (of a young bird) unfledged and usually lacking feathers
noun
Other Word Forms
- callowness noun
Etymology
Origin of callow
First recorded before 1000; Middle English, Old English calu “bald”; cognate with Dutch kaal, German kahl “bald,” Old Church Slavonic golŭ “bare”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He presented himself as a callow young culture warrior prosecuting a case against Old Europe.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 19, 2026
As with the proverbial frog in that pot of water, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s chilling action-thriller “Cloud,” about a callow internet hustler’s reckoning, has nothing good to offer about where online anonymity and e-capitalism have gotten us.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 25, 2025
As he attempted to build a young team with sell-on value in the future while remaining competitive in the present, his team was callow, inconsistent and flaky.
From BBC • Feb. 24, 2025
I was just a callow teen when Jimmy Carter became president.
From Salon • Jan. 2, 2025
"And I'm sick of being thought a callow boy wherever I go, because I'm forced to shave my beard."
From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
