callow

Also found in: Thesaurus, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

Related to callow: abjectly

cal·low

(kăl′ō)

adj.

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

[Middle English calwe, bald, from Old English calu.]

cal′low·ness n.

callow

(ˈkæləʊ)

adj

1. lacking experience of life; immature

2. (Zoology) rare (of a young bird) unfledged and usually lacking feathers

[Old English calu; related to Old High German kalo, Old Slavonic golú bare, naked, Lithuanian galva head, Latin calvus bald]

ˈcallowness n

Callow

(ˈkæləʊ)

(Biography) Simon. born 1949, British actor and theatre director

cal•low

(ˈkæl oʊ)

adj.

1. immature or inexperienced: a callow youth.

2. (of a young bird) featherless; unfledged.

[before 1000; Middle English, Old English calu bald, c. Middle Dutch, Middle Low German kale, Old High German chalo bald, Old Church Slavonic golŭ bare]

cal′low•ness, n.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Adj.

callow - young and inexperienced; "a fledgling enterprise"; "a fledgling skier"; "an unfledged lawyer"

fledgling, unfledged

inexperienced, inexperient - lacking practical experience or training

callow

adjective inexperienced, juvenile, naive, immature, raw, untried, green, unsophisticated, puerile, guileless, jejune, unfledged Although he's 25, he still behaves like a callow youth in some ways.

Translations

chauve

незрелый неопытный

callow

[ˈkæləʊ] ADJ (= immature) [youth] → imberbe, bisoño

callow

[ˈkæləʊ] adj [youth] → sans expérience (de la vie)call sign call signal n → indicatif m (d'appel)call-up [ˈkɔːlʌp] n

(= military service) → appel m (sous les drapeaux)

(British) (= selection for team) → sélection fcall-up papers npl → papiers mpl militaires

callow

adj → unreif; ideas etc → unausgegoren; a callow youth → ein grüner Junge (inf)

callow

[ˈkæləʊ] adj → immaturo/a

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

And then our jolly little nest here would be broken up -- and we poor callow nestlings thrown out on the cruel world of boardinghouses again."

View in context

Jansenius, feared for Agatha, who, time after time when a callow gentleman of wealth and position was introduced to her, drove him brusquely away as soon as he ventured to hint that 200 his affections were concerned in their acquaintanceship.

View in context

"Don't be surprised at that," returned the musician; "for with the callow poets of our day the way is for every one to write as he pleases and pilfer where he chooses, whether it be germane to the matter or not, and now-a-days there is no piece of silliness they can sing or write that is not set down to poetic licence."

View in context

Happily, however, during that spring, they never, but once, got anything but empty nests, or eggs--being too impatient to leave them till the birds were hatched; that once, Tom, who had been with his uncle into the neighbouring plantation, came running in high glee into the garden, with a brood of little callow nestlings in his hands.

View in context

He remembered the thrill that was his, a callow youth of fifteen, when, in Tempas Butte, through lack of a fourth man, Tom Galsworthy, the gambler, had said, "Get in, Kid; take a hand." That thrill was his now.

View in context

Flowered, he will assist at love-making, wreathed in my lady's nut-brown hair; young and callow and unblossomed, he goes into the boiling pot and delivers the word of his sovereign mistress.

View in context

He was so different from the callow youths and dapper fellows who had heretofore worshipped at her shrine.

View in context

Did she fancy, he wondered, that he was a callow boy to dance to any tune of her piping--that he had never before seen a beautiful woman who wanted her own way?

View in context

(With a dainty gesture of the hand signifying "Spare me your callow enthusiasms, good friend.") Yes, I know, I know; you go to cathedrals, and exclaim; and you drag through league-long picture-galleries and exclaim; and you stand here, and there, and yonder, upon historic ground, and continue to exclaim; and you are permeated with your first crude conceptions of Art, and are proud and happy.

View in context

They are not callow like the young of most birds, but more perfectly developed and precocious even than chickens.

View in context

Early in the morning and late at night he was to be seen half out of window, administering to the varied wants of his callow brood.

View in context

I judged that the second officer--a callow youth with an unpromising face--was not, to put it mildly, of that invaluable stuff from which a commander's right hand is made.