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Calf

[kaf, kahf]

Example Sentences Origin

noun, plural calves

[kavz, kahvz] .

the young of the domestic cow or other bovine animal.

the young of certain other mammals, as the elephant, seal, and whale.

calfskin leather.

Informal. an awkward, silly boy or man.

a mass of ice detached from a glacier, iceberg, or floe.

Idioms

in calf, (of a cow or other animal having calves) pregnant.

kill the fatted calf, to prepare an elaborate feast in welcome or celebration.

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Calf is always a great word to know.

So is bezoar. Does it mean:

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

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Origin:
before 900; Middle English; Old English cealf, calf; cognate with Old Saxon kalf, Old Norse kalfr, Old High German kalb

Related forms

calf·less, adjective

calf·like, adjective

Example Sentences

It continues below the knee where it branches off and carries blood to the muscles in the calf and foot.

Anything made with dairy has usually entailed the death of the calf or kid for which the mother cow/goat produced the milk.

They have begun to manage the entire production process, from seed and calf to packaged product, earning profits at every step.

EXPAND

It continues below the knee where it branches off and carries blood to the muscles in the calf and foot.

Anything made with dairy has usually entailed the death of the calf or kid for which the mother cow/goat produced the milk.

They have begun to manage the entire production process, from seed and calf to packaged product, earning profits at every step.

Lowered immunity may mean that a calf doesn't recover from a wound or minor infection.

The movement of the calf at this stage is a strong stimulus to the cow to get up and turn around and face the calf.

Such materials include connective tissue cells, called feeder layers, from mice and fetal calf serum.

Molly the calf seems to have escaped the slaughterhouse permanently.

As the calf gets larger, after all, it takes more feed to sustain it.

Females reproduce every two and a half to five years, and each calf starts living on its own when it's about three years old.

Those committed to their long term health who also tensed their calf muscles were more likely to drink more of the vinegar.

Shockingly, he killed nine rare white rhinoceroses, including four cows and a calf.

Each leg was missing its fibula, the long, thin bone that anchors the calf muscle and forms the outside of the ankle.

Gentle calf muscle stretches may also help reduce pain and spasms.

Their single calf does not live on its own until it is about three years old.

The killing of the calf is connected with the production of milk.

Howard planted one camera on his chest for confiscation and strapped another to his calf.

Achilles tendinitis, inflammation of the large tendon that connects your calf muscle to your heel.

Mothers give birth while standing, a jolting welcome for the calf.

The other will be farther down your leg, either in your calf or ankle.

Elk cows give birth to a single calf in the early summer.

Cows have one calf each year, which can stand after only a few minutes and move on with its mother by the next day.

Cows usually give birth to one calf every two to four years.

Females give birth to one calf after a nine-month pregnancy.

Jones focuses on whether the presence of a calf affects female behavior.

By pushing heels up, such shoes in effect shorten the calf muscles.

Witnesses said both attacks, less than a week apart, appeared to be a result of the moose's protecting her calf.

It tucks behind its wearer's knee and has extensions that strap around the front of his calf and his thigh.

It is put on the inoculation lance which is used to make long, shallow cuts on the belly of a calf.

If they butchered the calf and put the meat in the freezer, the power might fail and the meat spoil.

Of course the herders don't want the calf to die-it represents food and money.

Fitts' team tested muscle fibers from calf biopsies of nine astronauts, taken before and after their space station stay.

Metallic calf sandals include a woven leather ankle-strap flat, with an open toe, open heel and a platform sole.

These three moves target the calf and the front of the hip.

Nothing more controversial about this than a nose job or even butt and calf implants i've heard of men getting.

The first post-Chernobyl calf was born at the farm around.

The lice move from mother to calf and among whales in close contact with each other.

The cat would be no match for an adult elephant, but it might kill a calf.

The calf would get closer and closer, and the mother would usher it away.

In a gully lay the rotting bodies of a cow and a newborn calf.

If it is a mother, its calf swims wildly beside her, doomed to its own motherless death later on.

COLLAPSE

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun, plural calves [kavz, kahvz] .

the fleshy part of the back of the human leg below the knee.

Origin:
1275–1325; Middle English < Old Norse kalfi; akin to calf¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To Calf

Collins

World English Dictionary

calf¹ (kɑːf)

—n , pl calves
1.	the young of cattle, esp domestic cattleRelated: vituline
2.	the young of certain other mammals, such as the buffalo, elephant, giraffe, and whale
3.	a large piece of floating ice detached from an iceberg, etc
4.	kill the fatted calf to celebrate lavishly, esp as a welcome
5.	another name for calfskin

Related: vituline

[Old English cealf; related to Old Norse kālfr, Gothic kalbō, Old High German kalba]

calf² (kɑːf)

—n , pl calves
	the thick fleshy part of the back of the leg between the ankle and the kneeRelated: sural

Related: sural

[C14: from Old Norse kalfi]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

calf

O.E. cealf (Anglian cælf) "young cow," from W.Gmc. *kalbam (cf. M.Du. calf, O.N. kalfr, Ger. Kalb, Goth. kalbo), perhaps from PIE *gelb(h)-, from base *gel- "to swell," hence, "womb, fetus, young of an animal." Elliptical sense of "leather made from the skin of a calf" is from 1727. Used of icebergs

EXPAND

that break off from glaciers from 1818. Calf of the leg (early 14c.) is from O.N. kalfi, source unknown; possibly from the same Germanic root.

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

calf (kāf)
n. pl. calves (kāvz)
The fleshy, muscular back part of the human leg between the knee and ankle, formed chiefly by the bellies of the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles.

Easton

Bible Dictionary

Calf definition

Calves were commonly made use of in sacrifices, and are therefore frequently mentioned in Scripture. The "fatted calf" was regarded as the choicest of animal food; it was frequently also offered as a special sacrifice (1 Sam. 28:24; Amos 6:4; Luke 15:23). The words used in Jer. 34:18, 19, "cut the calf in twain," allude to the custom of dividing a sacrifice into two parts, between which the parties ratifying a covenant passed (Gen. 15:9, 10, 17, 18). The sacrifice of the lips, i.e., priase, is called "the calves of our lips" (Hos. 14:2, R.V., "as bullocks the offering of our lips." Comp. Heb. 13:15; Ps. 116:7; Jer. 33:11). The golden calf which Aaron made (Ex. 32:4) was probably a copy of the god Moloch rather than of the god Apis, the sacred ox or calf of Egypt. The Jews showed all through their history a tendency toward the Babylonian and Canaanitish idolatry rather than toward that of Egypt. Ages after this, Jeroboam, king of Israel, set up two idol calves, one at Dan, and the other at Bethel, that he might thus prevent the ten tribes from resorting to Jerusalem for worship (1 Kings 12:28). These calves continued to be a snare to the people till the time of their captivity. The calf at Dan was carried away in the reign of Pekah by Tiglath-pileser, and that at Bethel ten years later, in the reign of Hoshea, by Shalmaneser (2 Kings 15:29; 17:33). This sin of Jeroboam is almost always mentioned along with his name (2 Kings 15:28 etc.).

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

calf

see kill the fatted calf; puppy (calf) love.

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kill the fatted calf

puppy (calf) love

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"He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!""

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