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  1. callow love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Lacking adult maturity or experience; immature: a callow young man.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Bald; without hair.
  2. Without feathers; that has not yet put forth feathers; naked; unfledged, as a young bird: as, “callow young,”
  3. Pertaining to an unfledged bird: as, “callow down,” Drayton, The Owl.
  4. Youthful; juvenile; very immature: as, a callow youth.
  5. n. A bald person; a baldhead.
  6. n. An alluvial flat along a river-course: a term used by writers on Irish geology and agriculture.
  7. n. In coal-mining, the baring, or cover, of open workings.
  8. Having the character of an alluvial flat: as, callow land; a callow meadow.
  9. n. In entomology, an insect just emerged from its cocoon: especially applied to ants.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. obsolete Bald.
  2. adj. Unfledged (of a young bird).
  3. adj. Immature, lacking in life experience.
  4. adj. Lacking color or firmness (of some kinds of insects or other arthropods, such as spiders, just after ecdysis). Teneral.
  5. adj. Shallow or weak-willed.
  6. adj. Unburnt (of a brick)
  7. n. A callow young bird.
  8. n. A callow or teneral phase of an insect or other arthropod, typically shortly after ecdysis, while the skin still is hardening, the colours have not yet become stable, and as a rule, before the animal is able to move effectively.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Destitute of feathers; naked; unfledged.
  2. adj. Immature; boyish; “green”.
  3. n. (Zoöl.) A kind of duck. See old squaw.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. young and inexperienced

Etymologies

  1. From Middle English calwe ("bald"), from Old English calu ("callow, bare, bald"), from Proto-Germanic *kalwaz (“bare, naked, bald”), from Proto-Indo-European *gAlw- (“naked, bald”). Cognate with West Frisian keal ("bald"), Dutch kaal ("bald"), German kahl ("bald"), Russian голый (gólyj, "nude"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English calwe, bald, from Old English calu. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “(Being a new anonymous:) I have nothing at all to say about Kate DiCamillo as a person, but agree that her work is often heavy-handed, condescending, uninteresting, and just plain callow.”

    Here they are,

  • “This is hardly triumphalism, but calling a callow frat boy out on his bullshit.”

    Firedoglake » This Just In…

  • “He suddenly recalled a callow boy telling his tutor that he dreaded the sea voyage home, because he would have to be among common men rather than thoughtful acolytes like himself.”

    Ship Of Destiny

  • “The man of the world sometimes came upon the glove in his pocket, and laughed at it, as such men do when they recall their callow youth.”

    Tommy and Grizel

  • “Rolling Stone said that Stevie's singing was "callow," and many reviews said something like "... the raucous voice of Stevie Nicks and the golden-throated Christine McVie, who's the only good thing this band has left.”

    Fictionaut: ɘloЯ

  • “I don't excuse what he's done on the basis of kind of callow youth, because I think he's a 20-year-old who has spent about 17 or 18 years of that in on-the-job training for being a royal, so he should know better.”

    CNN Transcript Jan 13, 2005

  • “In previous debates, he's looked rather young, inexperienced, "callow" is a word you sometimes heard, not ready for primetime, out of his element.”

    CNN Transcript - Special Event: Republican Presidential Candidates Face off in Debate; Bush and McCain Battle for Reform Title - February 15, 2000

  • “Next morning early they sent in their 'callow' verses to the great man, and followed shortly themselves.”

    The Age of Erasmus Lectures Delivered in the Universities of Oxford and London

  • “A Don Knotts stereotype, he was the nation's youngest mayor in 1977 when Cleveland went belly-up because he wouldn't cut enough to balance the budget-thus giving the word "callow" a bad connotation ….”

    Tom Roeser

  • “It later garnered a reputation for a certain kind of callow albeit popular licensed book, and for its constant attention to replicating certain effects of previous successful efforts -- the kind of relaunch and reconfigure and rehash grind that slowly drives readers away.”

    The Comics Reporter

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synonyms (7)

Words with the same meaning

  1. naked
  1. unfledged
  1. immature
  1. boyish
  1. “green
  1. featherless
  1. inexperienced

equivalents (2)

Other words for ‘callow’

  1. inexperient
  1. inexperienced

same context (23)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. half-grown
  2. motherless
  3. tow-headed
  4. curly-haired
  1. croquette
  2. bright-faced
  3. shock-headed
  4. fresh-faced
  1. unthankful
  2. semi-royal
  3. vulcrow
  4. graceless
  1. misbegotten
  2. nice-looking
  3. gangly
  4. love-sick
  1. proem
  2. pre-marital
  3. megalomaniacal
  4. newborn
  1. stage-struck
  2. chuckleheaded
  3. scruffy

rhymes (10)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Gallo
  2. ballow
  1. balow
  2. cavallo
  1. gallow
  2. hallow
  1. mallow
  2. palo
  1. shallow
  2. tallow

reverse dictionary (3)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. callow
  1. calf
  1. old squaw

tags (4)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. behead
  1. manner
  1. SATWOTD
  1. _mannerism

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Lists

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Comments

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  • marco_nj "callow narcissism" Jan 21, 2009

  • rolig "If there's a candidate who exceeded realistic expectations, it was Biden who knocked it out of the park and exposed Palin for the attractive, but callow, candidate she really is."

    – DemFromCT, "Musings over Morning Coffee", DailyKos, 3 October 2008, on the vice-presidential candidates' debate, 2 October 2008.

    "Callow" is exactly the right word. Oct 3, 2008

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‘callow’ has been looked up 5089 times, loved by 16 people, added to 123 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 11.