callow
Immature, inexperienced, or naiveImmature, inexperienced, or naive.
» The callow recruits wished they were home.
Meaning
9 sensesImmature, inexperienced, or naive.
young and inexperienced
Having no hair; bald, bare, hairless.
Of a brick: unburnt.
Of a young bird, or (part of) its body: having not developed feathers yet; featherless, unfledged; hence, of other animals or their bodies: having no fur or hair; furless, hairless, unfurred.
Of a young bird, or (part of) its body: having not developed feathers yet; featherless, unfledged; hence, of other animals or their bodies: having no fur or hair; furless, hairless, unfurred.
(figuratively)Lacking life experience; immature, inexperienced, naive; also, of or relating to something immature or inexperienced.
Those three young men are particularly callow youths.
grün, unerfahren, unreif
нео́пытныйneópytnyj, незре́лыйnezrélyj
недосві́дченийnedosvídčenyj, незрі́лийnezrílyj
(broadly)In the life cycle of an animal: newly born or hatched; juvenile.
a callow bee
(broadly)Synonym of teneral (“of certain insects or other arthropods such as spiders: lacking colour or firmness just after ecdysis (“shedding of the exoskeleton”)”).
(Ireland)Of land: low-lying and near a river, and thus regularly submerged.
(obsolete)Of land: having no vegetation; bare.
Examples
2 sentencesThe callow recruits wished they were home.
He’s too callow to handle such responsibilities.
Translations
6 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
By meaning 1
Origin
From Middle English calwe (“(adjective) bald; (noun) bald person”), from Old English calu,From Middle English calwe (“(adjective) bald; (noun) bald person”), from Old English calu, caluw (“without hair, bald, callow”), from Proto-West Germanic *kalu, from Proto-Germanic *kalwaz (“bald; bare, naked”), and then either:
From Irish caladh (“meadow by a riverbank”), from Old Irish calad (“shore, landing, port”), probably a noun use of calad (“hard”, adjective), from Proto-Celtic *kaletos (“cruel; hard; strong”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlH-eto- (“cold”) (in the sense of something frozen and thus hard), from an unclear root *ḱl(H)- or *kl(H)- (“hard”); or related to Proto-Germanic *halluz (“boulder, rock, stone”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“to cut, hew”). Perhaps influenced by Etymology 1 in some manner.
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Forms
callower/more callow, callowest/most callow| Comparative | callower / more callow Lesson |
|---|---|
| Superlative | callowest / most callow Lesson |
regular
Synonyms
36 synonymsAntonyms
4 antonymsWord family
4 related wordsLessons for this word
2 lessons- A2Comparatives — Because it has a comparative form
- A2Superlatives — Because it has a superlative form