1. 1乳臭未乾的;稚嫩沒經驗的(帶貶義,不是中性的「年輕」)

    Callow means young and without experience, and the speaker is not being kind about it. A callow youth, a callow intern: you are saying they are still naive, maybe a bit sure of themselves, and they have not earned their place yet. It is a , slightly old-fashioned word; you meet it in writing and sharp remarks more than in the corridor. It is not simply young. A young doctor can be skilled; a callow one is young and still green, and you are at that. Though actually, the word first meant bald, then young birds with no feathers yet, and from there it moved to people who have not grown their feathers. The bald meaning is gone in everyday English.

組成From Old English calu / caluw, bald, through Middle English calwe. Bald became unfeathered (young birds), then inexperienced (young people). Scholars do not all agree whether Latin calvus, bald, is a true relative or only looks similar — treat that link as unsure.

原始詞典資料17 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法,摘錄並精簡格式,我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的;有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

Callowname

  • 1

    A surname.

callowadj詞源 1/ˈkæləʊ/

  • 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.
  • 2

    Having no hair; bald, bare, hairless.

    • 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.
    • 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.
  • 3

    businessconstructionmanufacturingOf a brick: unburnt.

  • 4

    biologynatural-sciencesornithologyOf 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.

    • […] 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.
    • [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.
  • 5

    biologynatural-sciencesornithologyOf 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.

    • Those three young men are particularly callow youths.
    • Try to remember the kind of September / When you were a tender and callow fellow / Try to remember and if you remember / Then follow
  • 6

    biologynatural-scienceszoologyIn the life cycle of an animal: newly born or hatched; juvenile.

    • a callow bee
  • 7

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

  • 8

    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, […]

callownoun詞源 1/ˈkæləʊ/

  • 1

    biologyentomologynatural-sciencesSynonym 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”).

  • 2

    geographygeologynatural-sciencesAn alluvial flat.

  • 3

    archaicregionalbusinessminingThe upper layer of rubble in a quarry which has to be removed to reach the material to be mined.

  • 4

    obsoletebiologynatural-sciencesornithologyA young bird which has not developed feathers yet; a nestling.

  • 5

    obsoletebiologynatural-sciencesornithologyA young bird which has not developed feathers yet; a nestling.

  • 6

    obsoleteSynonym of topsoil (“upper layer of soil”).

callowadj詞源 2/ˈkæləʊ/

  • 1

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

    • 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.

callownoun詞源 2/ˈkæləʊ/

  • 1

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

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

摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary,已精簡格式;依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用,改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。