Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Having no or extremely reduced calves.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

calf (“back of the leg below the knee”) +‎ -less

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word calfless.

Examples

  • Bawling like a calfless cow, Antonia Hybrida proceeded to let all of Rome know what had happened to her daughter.

    Antony and Cleopatra Colleen McCullough 2007

  • Bawling like a calfless cow, Antonia Hybrida proceeded to let all of Rome know what had happened to her daughter.

    Antony and Cleopatra Colleen McCullough 2007

  • His mind was filled with thoughts of the peasants, the women, children, old men, and all the poverty and weariness which he seemed to have seen for the first time, especially the smiling, old-faced infant writhing with his calfless little legs, and he could not help contrasting what was going on in the town.

    Resurrection 2003

  • The feet and thighs were those of a muscular man: the legs rather too curved and calfless, though I have seen Negroes who had scarcely better ones; the tendons of the hands stood out like whipcords; the nails were as long as a tiger's claws.

    Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 342, April, 1844 Various

  • Singapore, even, is physically perfect, and consequently in agreeable contrast to the Indian of calfless legs, and his Cingalese colleague of weak lungs.

    East of Suez Ceylon, India, China and Japan Frederic Courtland Penfield 1888

  • It is averred that he is loyal and efficient, but with his calfless legs bared to the knee and feet shod in sandals, he looks a queer cousin of Fifth Avenue's "Finest" and of the

    East of Suez Ceylon, India, China and Japan Frederic Courtland Penfield 1888

  • His mind was filled with thoughts of the peasants, the women, children, old men, and all the poverty and weariness which he seemed to have seen for the first time, especially the smiling, old-faced infant writhing with his calfless little legs, and he could not help contrasting what was going on in the town.

    Voskresenie. English Leo Tolstoy 1869

  • "What is that defective being, with calfless legs and stooping shoulders, weak in body and mind, inert, pusillanimous and stupid, whose premature wrinkles and furtive glance, tell of misery and degradation?

    Cotton is King, and Pro-Slavery Arguments Comprising the Writings of Hammond, Harper, Christy, Stringfellow, Hodge, Bledsoe, and Cartrwright on This Important Subject E. N. [Editor] Elliott

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.