shallow
Americanadjective
-
of little depth; not deep.
shallow water.
-
lacking depth; superficial.
a mind that is not narrow but shallow.
-
taking in a relatively small amount of air in each inhalation.
shallow breathing.
-
Baseball. relatively close to home plate.
The shortstop caught the pop fly in shallow left field.
noun
adverb
verb (used with or without object)
-
shallows,
present (3rd person singular)
-
shallowed,
past participle, past
-
shallowing
present participle
adjective
-
having little depth
-
lacking intellectual or mental depth or subtlety; superficial
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
shallowsimple
-
shallowssimple
-
have shallowedperfect
-
has shallowedperfect
-
am shallowingprogressive
-
are shallowingprogressive
-
is shallowingprogressive
-
have been shallowingperfect progressive
-
has been shallowingperfect progressive
Past
-
shallowedsimple
-
had shallowedperfect
-
was shallowingprogressive
-
were shallowingprogressive
-
had been shallowingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of shallow
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English schalowe (adjective); akin to Old English sceald “shallow” ( see shoal 1)
Explanation
The adjective shallow can describe things that aren't very deep, like a shallow puddle, or people who don't have much emotional or intellectual depth, like shallow people who judge others on their looks and how much money they have. Shallow likely comes from the Old English word sceald, which means "shoal," the water near a shoreline. So, shallow describes something that is close to the surface — like the shallow roots of a newly-planted tree or a person whose interest in someone or something isn't very deep. For instance, a shallow person might go to the opening of a new art exhibition not so much to see the artworks as meet the wealthy people on the museum's board of trustees.
Vocabulary lists containing shallow
Face It: Selfie Vocab
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Words from Shakespearean Insults
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Workshop 2, Part 1
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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.
See Examples For:
In the seventh inning of the Dodgers’ 11-5 victory against the Rockies, Tucker seemed to camp right under a shallow fly.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
About 80 degrees North, this remote island area was once covered by a shallow sea.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 17, 2026
The epicentre of the shallow quake was just north of Flores island in eastern Indonesia.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
"Is the area safe? Consider potential hazards - too deep or too shallow, currents, tides, underwater objects," it says on its website.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
Most of the Housatonic’s 155 crewmembers saved themselves by launching lifeboats or by climbing into the ship’s rigging, which towered safely above the harbor’s shallow twenty-seven-foot depth.
From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler
This intensified circulation caused the thermocline, the boundary between warmer surface water and colder deep water, to become shallower across the Atlantic.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026
However, small growers often have shallower wells that are more vulnerable to going dry when water levels drop.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
The pace of construction on buildings with five or more units dropped roughly 42% in May from April, while single-family units decreased by a shallower 1.9%.
From Barron's ● Jun. 16, 2026
It only makes economic sense in certain places, primarily the western part of the U.S., where hot rock can be found in shallower surfaces.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 23, 2026
I scream a prayer inside me and plunge for a little lump of land groping itself into the shallower waters.
From "Beast Rider" by Tony Johnston & María Elena Fontanot de Rhoads
Currently, surveys are limited to very restricted spots, but with the help of these advanced underwater drones, scientists can extend their research from the shallowest regions to depths of 60 meters and beyond.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 15, 2024
Though residential investment, which includes homebuilding, likely contracted for the ninth straight quarter, the decline was probably the shallowest in 1-1/2 years.
From Reuters ● Jul. 27, 2023
It’s a shame that, despite a few charming moments that show some depth, the film only offers the shallowest of dips into the ocean that is modern queer culture.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 3, 2022
But it also validates every critique of these shows and the gamified pursuit of romance or hooking up based purely on image and the shallowest of connections.
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2021
The moon was hidden somewhere behind the blinding glare, and it felt like the city itself was collapsing, pressing in, taking only the shallowest of breaths in the squeeze of lost space.
From "All American Boys" by Jason Reynolds
Divers tied stone weights around their ankles and held their breath as they sank to the bottom of the shallows.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
On Thursday, the beachside felt calm as a woman was leisurely paddle boarding in the shallows while children played on the beach.
From Barron's ● Jun. 4, 2026
They frequent the shallows surrounding Friday Harbor Labs, the UW research facility located on San Juan Island.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2025
Mothers, toddlers and lovers waded through the shallows like shore birds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2025
This followed the line of the river, which ran straight from almost as far away as they could see, flowing smoothly without fords, gravel shallows or plank bridges.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
Once again, the sea shallowed, and fish shimmied between crags, sea urchins perched on ridges and starfish danced on the side of the island.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 6, 2017
Instead of descending directly into the mantle, the subducting plate shallowed out and moved eastward beneath the continental plate affecting the overlying continent hundreds of miles east of the continental margin and building high mountains.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2017
That shows I've shallowed the path of my driver from the top to impact.
From Golf Digest ● Aug. 7, 2016
“Be a good boy,” my mother said with a shallowed voice before closing the door behind her, leaving us alone.
From Salon ● Mar. 5, 2013
The pool had been narrowed by half and shallowed to a depth of ten feet in the series of explosions Sears had detonated until the river gave up the rent carcass of the monstrous reptile.
From Terry A Tale of the Hill People by Charles Goff Thomson
The researchers cite as one example the Bangkok basin in Thailand, where groundwater levels fell in the late-twentieth century before shallowing out in the early 21at Century.
From Salon ● Jan. 24, 2024
Instead, the fish have been forced to lay their eggs at the base of Shasta Lake in the shallowing Sacramento River.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2022
Other times, I get too steep with my swing. and I can't get the ball to do what I want, so I work on shallowing my angle of attack.
From Golf Digest ● Mar. 19, 2019
But the shallowing seawater in the Baltic Sea is not the only thing worrying people in the area, says Knutsson.
From Slate ● Aug. 7, 2017
She could feel the dream shallowing, like a sleek ship beaching on a shoal.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
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.
