callow

comparative callower · comparative more callow · superlative callowest · superlative most callow

1. Immature, inexperienced, or naive.

   Through both the volumes, there is not a single original sentiment, description, or incident, and yet a callow reader may peruse it without perceiving any thing is wanting.

   1764, A Society of GENTLEMEN, THE CRITICAL REVIEW or Annals of Literature, volume the Seventeenth, London, page 487

2. Having no hair; bald, bare, hairless.

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

   1944, Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Art, London; Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers […], →OCLC, page 225, column 1

   3 more examples

   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.

   1878, A[lfred] Egmont Hake, “Professeurs de Langues”, in Paris Originals, London: C[harles] Egan Paul & Co., […], →OCLC, page 25

   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.

   1916 July 1, S. Macnaughton, “Some Elderly People and Their Young Friends. Chapter V.”, in The Living Age, volume III (8th Series; volume CCXC overall), number 3756, Boston, Mass.: The Living Age Company […], →OCLC, page 24, column 2

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

   2011, Altea [pseudonym], chapter 3, in Happiness Was a Red Cadillac, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 17

3. businessOf a brick: unburnt.
4. biologyOf 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.

   [T]he instant the callow brood are fledged, they are driven from the nest, and forced to shift for themselves in the wide world.

   1822, William Hazlitt, “Essay XIV. On Patronage and Puffing.”, in Table-Talk; or, Original Essays, volume II, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Henry Colburn and Co., →OCLC, page 329

   5 more examples

   […] 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.

   1567, Ovid, “The Sixt Booke”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, […], London: […] Willyam Seres […], →OCLC, folio 79, verso

   [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.

   1603, Plutarch, “Of Hearing”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC, page 63

   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.

   1717, John Dryden, “Book XII. [The Trojan War.]”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 408

   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.

   1728, [James] Thomson, Spring. A Poem, […] A[ndrew] Millar, […]; and G[eorge] Strahan, […], →OCLC, page 34

   Her [the desert pelican's] young in the refreshing bath / Sported all wantonness; / Dipt down their callow heads, / Filled the swoln membrane from their plumeless throat / Pendant, […]

   1801, Robert Southey, “The Fifth Book”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume I, London: […] [F]or T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O[wen] Rees, […], by Biggs and Cottle, […], →OCLC, pages 258–259

   1. figurativelybiologyLacking life experience; immature, inexperienced, naive; also, of or relating to something immature or inexperienced.

      Those three young men are particularly callow youths.

      4 more examples

      Try to remember the kind of September / When you were a tender and callow fellow / Try to remember and if you remember / Then follow

      1960, “Try to Remember”, in Tom Jones (lyrics), Harvey Schmidt (music), The Fantasticks: The Original Cast Album of the Award-winning International Musical, performed by Jerry Orbach (as El Gallo), New York, N.Y.: MGM Records, →OCLC

      Bernard, there are only 630 MPs, if one party has just over 300 MPs it forms a government—of that 300, 100 are too old and too silly, 100 are too young and too callow, which leaves just about a hundred MPs to fill 100 government posts.

      1980 March 10, Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn, “The Economy Drive”, in Yes, Minister, season 1, episode 3, spoken by Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne), London: British Broadcasting Corporation and BBC Worldwide, →OCLC

      The restless scrolling, the clammy self-reproach afterwards … we could recognise that as addiction quite easily, but the mathematical mechanism for having created it makes horrible sense ([Jaron] Lanier isn't that interested in culprits, though he finds all of Silicon Valley pretty callow).

      2018 May 30, Zoe Williams, “Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier – review”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Jun 2025

      Barça [FC Barcelona] had frozen. [Trent] Alexander-Arnold saw it, caught Divock Origi's eyes and pinged the perfect cross for a double-take of a winning goal. This was a 20-year-old local lad, product of down the road, out-thinking Barcelona, making them look like callow, pigeon-chested schoolboys.

      2019 May 8, Barney Ronay, “Liverpool’s waves of red fury and recklessness end in joyous bedlam”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Sep 2024

      Synonyms: green, wet behind the ears, artless, childlike, verdant, clueless, credulous, dewy-eyed · Antonyms: experienced, adultish, grown up, mature

5. broadlybiologyIn the life cycle of an animal: newly born or hatched; juvenile.

   a callow bee

6. broadlybiologySynonym of teneral (“of certain insects or other arthropods such as spiders: lacking colour or firmness just after ecdysis (“shedding of the exoskeleton”)”).

   Synonyms: teneral

7. obsoleteOf land: having no vegetation; bare.

   [T]heſe Lands are not ſvvardy enough to bear clean tillage, nor callovv or light enough to lie to get ſvvard, […]

   1677, Rob[ert] Plot, “Of Arts”, in The Natural History of Oxford-shire, Being an Essay toward the Natural History of England, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Sheldonian] Theater […], →OCLC, paragraph 66, page 243

plural callows

1. countableuncountablebiologySynonym 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”).

   Synonyms: teneral

2. countableuncountablegeographyAn alluvial flat.
3. UKarchaiccountableregionaluncountablebusinessThe upper layer of rubble in a quarry which has to be removed to reach the material to be mined.
4. countableobsoleteuncountablebiologyA young bird which has not developed feathers yet; a nestling.
   1. countablefigurativelyobsoleteuncountablebiologyA person lacking life experience; an immature or naive person.
5. East AngliacountableobsoleteuncountableSynonym of topsoil (“upper layer of soil”).

   Synonyms: topsoil

comparative more callow · superlative most callow

1. IrelandOf land: low-lying and near a river, and thus regularly submerged.

   1 more example

   The Bogs that extend along the western part of this District do not lie close to the Shannon, as those on the east side do along the banks of the Inny; they are separated from the river by a long tract of high, dry, callow land, subject, immediately near the river, to being overflowed in winter, but affording meadow, pasture, and in some places good arable land.

   1811 February 26 (date written), Thomas Townsend, “Appendix, No. 7. The Report of Mr. Thomas Townsend; in District No. 6. [No. 5. Details of Particular Bogs.]”, in J. Leslie Foster [et al.], The Second Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Enquire into the Nature and Extent of the Several Bogs in Ireland, and the Practicability of Draining and Cultivating them. […], [Dublin]: […] [Graisberry and Campbell?], published 1 April 1811, →OCLC, page 192

plural callows

1. IrelandA low-lying meadow near a river which is regularly submerged.

   Near-synonyms: bog, fen, marsh, swamp, mire, moor, slough

   1 more example

   The crops of hay carried off by the floods, or rendered utterly valueless, were not the only losses sustained by the landholders. The extensive callows upon which they grazed their cattle during the autumn and early winter, were unavailable this season.

   1862, Henry Coulter, chapter I, in The West of Ireland: Its Existing Condition, and Prospects, Dublin: Hodges & Smith, […]; London: Hurst & Blackett, […]; Edinburgh; London: W[illia]m Blackwood & Sons, →OCLC, page 6

   Synonyms: flood meadow, water meadow, bog, fen, marsh, swamp, mire, moor

plural Callows

1. A surname.