Callow

/ˈkæləʊ/ · adjective

Meaning

Of a person: having no hair; bald, bare, hairless..

Definitions by Sense

1. Of a person: having no hair; bald, bare, hairless.
2. (masonry) Of a brick: unburnt.
3. 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.
4. In the life cycle of an animal: newly born or hatched; juvenile.
5. Synonym of teneral (“of certain insects or other arthropods such as spiders: lacking colour or firmness just after ecdysis (“shedding of the exoskeleton”)”).
6. (obsolete) Of land: having no vegetation; bare.
7. (entomology) Synonym of teneral (“an insect or other arthropod such as a spider which has just undergone ecdysis (“shedding of the exoskeleton”) and so lacks colour or firmness”).
8. (geology) An alluvial flat.

Example Sentences

Then there was a little Chinese in full azure costume, with long gesticulating arms, and large callow head, who pertinaciously threw in his squeaky plea for Confucius in the most unsyntactical French.

There was a sense abroad as he spoke that the world was rocking together to great music, and this callow-headed professor by the table had caught a note of it.

This time it held a callow-headed baby in a pink frock.

These hands were marked of hard work and yet soft enough to tenderly hold the baby's little callow head.

[…] Calais and Zetes had no beard upon their chin, / They both were callow. But aſſone as haire did once begin / In likeneſſe of a yellow Downe upon their cheekes to ſprout, / Then (euen as comes to paſſe in Birdes) the feathers budded out / Togither on their pinyons too, and ſpreaded round about / On both their ſides.

[T]hey [who] be ſomevvhat ſlovv of apprehenſion and idle vvithall, are verie troubleſome unto their teachers, and importune them overmuch: […] reſembling herein young callovv birds vvhich are not yet fethered and fledg'd, but alvvaies gaping tovvard the bill of the damme, and ſo by their good vvils vvould have nothing given them, but that vvhich hath beene chevved and prepared already.

A Snake of Size immenſe aſcends a Tree, / And in the leafie Summit, ſpy'd a Neſt, / VVhich o'er her Callovv Young, a Sparrovv preſs'd.

Th' appointed Time / VVith pious Toil fulfill'd, the callovv Young / VVarm'd, and expanded into perfect Life, / Their brittle Bondage break, and come to Light, / A helpleſs Family, demanding Food / VVith conſtant Clamour.

Synonyms for callow

Antonyms for callow

Related Words

Word Forms

• callower
• more callow
• callowest
• most callow
• callows

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

Practice and Learn More

Frequently Asked Questions