callow

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If he seems giddy and callow, the situation will correct itself in time because after he's in office awhile he will not have the luxury of blaiming others for the way things are. if Sarah Palin had won, critics would be able (with some validity) to claim that she got votes by being a "hot babe."

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Definitions (13)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

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

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (9)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • As an example, Jackson Pollock's pre-drip paintings showed him to be a meager, callow, and highly imitative artist; but it was his heavily promoted tale of woe (alcoholism and failed love life) and 'rebirth,' not any real skill, that made him a star in the art world. —  Alternative Film Guide
  • If he seems giddy and callow, the situation will correct itself in time because after he's in office awhile he will not have the luxury of blaiming others for the way things are. if Sarah Palin had won, critics would be able (with some validity) to claim that she got votes by being a "hot babe." —  Intellectual Conservative Politics and Philosophy
  • His first major interviews were bumbling and he came across as callow, a little shifty (on the National Guard issue) and sort of dim. —  The Strata-Sphere
  • Officers--callow, heroic, squint-eyed, supercilious, superb, of any and every Allied country--officers were the quarry, and they the hunters. —  The Parts Men Play
  • She learned--as she manages to learn everything a little before anybody else hears of it--that Jack Ruthven found out that Alixe was behaving very carelessly with some man--some silly, callow, and probably harmless youth. —  The Younger Set
 

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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English calwe, bald, from Old English calu.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English calowe, calew, calu, from Anglo-Saxon calu (calw-) = Dutch kaal = Old High German calo, chalo (calaw-), Middle High German kal (kalic-), German kahl = Swedish kal, bald, bare (cf. Danish kullet, polled, en kullet ko, a cow without horns: ko = English cow), prob., with loss of orig. initial s (cf. scall), = Latin calvus (orig. *scalvus?), bald (later Italian Spanish Portuguese calvo = Provencal calv = Old French chau, French chauve: see Calvary, Calvinism, and Chauvin).
  2. English dial., apparently callow, bare.
 

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/ˈkæloʊ/
by American Heritage

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