Word of the Day Archive
Monday June 27, 2005
callow \KAL-oh\ , adjective:
Immature; lacking adult perception, experience, or judgment.
Those who in later years did me harm I describe as I knew them then, and I beg any reader to remember that, although I was hardly callow, I was not yet wise in the ways of the world.
-- Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost
George Black Jr was grateful that during his protracted courtship of Betty, his future father-in-law 'bore my callow unsophistication with benign indulgence'.
-- Richard Siklos, Shades of Black
They watched in awe as Revere, at first a callow and unambitious youth, began to develop into a serious young man dedicated to books and devoted to his father.
-- Sherwin B. Nuland, "The Saint", New Republic, December 13, 1999
Callow is from Old English calu, "featherless, bald."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for callow
