callousness
Americannoun
-
the quality of being insensitive, indifferent, or unsympathetic; hardness of heart.
Cutting off the unemployed from their benefits is a sad blend of callousness—a complete lack of empathy for the unfortunate—and unsound economics.
-
a hardened or thickened condition of the skin or other tissue.
Razors and shaving cause a callousness of the skin, which will encourage heavier hair growth and irritation.
Other Word Forms
- uncallousness noun
Etymology
Origin of callousness
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.
We knew this from past cross-country trips, but we felt surprised all over again—perhaps because of the callousness we perceive among people we see in the news.
Jobless inertia and financial strife breed a cruelty that isn’t dissimilar from the cold strike of an employer maintaining their bottom line, cutting 100 workers with the same callousness that they’d cut 1,000.
From Salon
If you weren’t turned off by the perception of callousness, the distraction of watching the level of charity pot dwindle while people thanked their mothers, spouses and co-workers was aggravating.
From Salon
It was the first operation Martino has witnessed and she said it underscores the disturbing callousness of how they are being conducted.
From Los Angeles Times
One cannot demonstrate this like a mathematical proof, but this carelessness, or callousness, about human life seems linked to fatalistic, even nihilistic attitudes.
From Salon
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.
