shallow
- 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.
- Usually shallows. (used with a singular or plural verb) a shallow part of a body of water; shoal.
- Baseball. at a shallow position: With the pitcher up, the outfielders played shallow.
- to make or become shallow.
Origin of shallow
Related Words for shallowness
silliness, lunacy, apathy, ignorance, nonsense, idiocy, absurdity, blindness, oblivion, levity, disregard, illiteracy, bewilderment, insensitivity, simplicity, stupor, stolidity, fatuity, weakness, ineptitudeExamples from the Web for shallowness
Contemporary Examples of shallowness
The shallowness of the Obama white paper, issued last June, is now only too obvious.
Historical Examples of shallowness
Their freshness soon withered, on account of the shallowness of the earth.
PhilotheaLydia Maria Child
All that I have seen of life only shows the shallowness of what is called the public service.
A Day's RideCharles James Lever
Shallowness has this advantage, that you can't be drowned there.'
A Pair of Blue EyesThomas Hardy
And here the depth or shallowness of our theology will be sure to tell.
The Preacher and His ModelsJames Stalker
She felt a sort of bitter shame over her own shallowness of feeling.
Robert ElsmereMrs. Humphry Ward
shallow
- having little depth
- lacking intellectual or mental depth or subtlety; superficial
- (often plural) a shallow place in a body of water; shoal
- to make or become shallow
Word Origin for shallow
Word Origin and History for shallowness
shallow
c.1400, schalowe "not deep," probably from or related to Old English sceald (see shoal (n.)). Of breathing, attested from 1875; of thought or feeling, "superficial," first recorded 1580s. The noun, usually shallows, is first recorded 1570s, from the adjective.