callus
- Pathology, Physiology.
- a hardened or thickened part of the skin; a callosity.
- a new growth of osseous matter at the ends of a fractured bone, serving to unite them.
- Also callose. Botany.
- the tissue that forms over the wounds of plants, protecting the inner tissues and causing healing.
- a deposit on the perforated area of a sieve tube.
- (in grasses) a tough swelling at the base of a lemma or palea.
- to form a callus.
- to produce a callus or calluses on: Heavy work callused his hands.
Origin of callus
Related Words for calluses
conform, strengthen, stupefy, discipline, inure, develop, callous, acclimatize, adapt, habituate, stun, steel, embitter, season, train, numb, deaden, teach, dull, stiffenExamples from the Web for calluses
Contemporary Examples of calluses
Calluses [that were] painful when he danced … and a bad fungus that was all over his feet and into his flesh.
Historical Examples of calluses
Let's have another look at his hand, to see if there are any calluses.
The Professor at the Breakfast TableOliver Wendell Holmes (Sr.)
I accepted the calluses as of long time and a matter of course.
The Jacket (The Star-Rover)Jack London
But if we give it up, the calluses disappear; and if we meddle with it again, we miss the novelty and get the blisters.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-TableOliver Wendell Holmes
But then he took her hand and felt its fine warmth, the calluses he remembered from all those months ago, and he felt better.
MakersCory Doctorow
callus
- Also called: callosity an area of skin that is hard or thick, esp on the palm of the hand or sole of the foot, as from continual friction or pressure
- an area of bony tissue formed during the healing of a fractured bone
- botany
- a mass of hard protective tissue produced in woody plants at the site of an injury
- an accumulation of callose in the sieve tubes
- biotechnology a mass of undifferentiated cells produced as the first stage in tissue culture
- to produce or cause to produce a callus
Word Origin for callus
Word Origin and History for calluses
callus
"hardened skin," 1560s, from Latin callus, variant of callum "hard skin," related to callere "be hard," from PIE root *kal- "hard" (cf. Sanskrit kalika "bud," Old Irish calath "hard," Old Church Slavonic kaliti "to cool, harden").
callus
(kăl′əs)- callosity
- The hard bony tissue that develops around the ends of a fractured bone during healing.
callus
- An area of the skin that has become hardened and thick, usually because of prolonged pressure or rubbing.
- The hard bony tissue that develops around the ends of a fractured bone during healing.