▪ I. callow, a. and n.
(ˈkæləʊ)
Forms: 1 calu, caluw, calo, 3 caluȝ, 4 calu, calouh, calewe, calouwe, 6 kallowe, 6– callow.
[OE. calu (def. calw-e):—WGer. kalwo-, whence also MLG. kale, MDu. cāle (calu, gen. caluwes), OHG. chalo (def. chalwe, chalawe), MHG. kal (kalwe), Ger. kahl, by Kluge thought to be cognate with Lith. gŏlŭ naked, blank; but not improbably an adoption of L. calv-us bald. Cf. Ir. and Gael. calbh bald.]
A. adj.
† 1. Bald, without hair. Obs.
| a 1000 Prov. (Kemble) 42 (Bosw.) Moniᵹ man weorþ færlice caluw. a 1000 Riddles xli. 99 (Gr.) Ic eom wide calu. c 1375 Cato Major ii. xxix, Þat forehed is lodly Þat is calouh & bare. 1388 Wyclif Lev. xiii. 40 A man of whos heed heeris fleten awei, is calu [1382 ballid]. |
2. Of birds: Unfledged, without feathers.
| 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 63 Yoong callow birds which are not yet fethered and fledg'd. 1728 Thomson Spring 667 The callow young..Their brittle bondage break. 1801 Southey Thalaba v. iii. Poems IV. 180 Her young in the refreshing bath, Dipt down their callow heads. 1822 Hazlitt Table-t. II. xiv. 329 The callow brood are fledged. |
b. Applied to the down of unfledged birds; and so, to the down on a youth's cheek and chin.
| 1604 Drayton Owle 245 His soft and callow downe. 1697 Dryden Virg. Past. viii. 57 The callow Down began to cloath my Chin. 1735 Somerville Chase ii. 457 Prove..their Valour's Growth Mature, e'er yet the callow Down has spread Its curling Shade. |
3. fig. Inexperienced, raw, ‘unfledged’.
| 1580 Harvey in Spenser's Wks. (Grosart) I. 40 Some, that weene themselves as fledged as the reste, being..as kallowe. 1651 Cleveland Poems 31 Blasphemy unfledg'd, a callow curse. a 1797 H. Walpole Mem. Geo. II (1847) I. xii. 410 Teaching young and callow orators to soar. 1823 Lamb Elia Ser. ii. xvii. (1865) 343 The first callow flights in authorship. 1849 C. Brontë Shirley xxxiii. 474 In all the voluptuous ease of a yet callow pacha. |
4. Of land: a. Bare; b. (Ireland.) Low-lying and liable to be submerged.
| 1677 Plot Oxfordsh. 243 When these Lands are not swardy enough to bear clean tillage, nor callow or light enough to lie to get sward. 1878 Lever J. Hinton xx. 138 Broad tracts of bog or callow meadow-land. 1882 Science Gossip Mar. 51 If a callow meadow is flooded all the winter. |
5. Comb. † callow-mouse, a bat.
| 1340 Ayenb. 27 Þe enuious ne may ysy þet guod of oþren nanmore þanne þe oule oþer þe calouwe mous þe briȝtnesse of þe zonne. |
B. n.
† 1. One who is bald; a bald-pate. Obs.
| c 1305 Life St. Dunstan 89 in E.E.P. (1862) 37 Out, what haþ þe calewe [St. Dunstan] ido: what haþ þe calewe ido. |
† 2. A callow nestling; fig. a raw youth. Obs.
| a 1667 Jer. Taylor Serm. (1678) 310 Such a person..de⁓plumes himself to feather all the naked Callows that he sees. 1670 A. Behn Widow Rant. iv. iii, She..that can prefer such a callow as thou before a man. |
3. The stratum of vegetable soil lying above the subsoil; the top or rubble bed of a quarry, which has to be removed to reach the rock. dial.
| 1863 Morton Cycl. Agric. II. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Callow (Norf., Suff.), the soil covering the subsoil. 1875 Ure Dict. Arts I. 673 Callow, the top or rubble bed of a quarry. This is obliged to be removed before the useful material is raised. |
4. A low-lying damp meadow by the banks of an Irish river.
| 1862 H. Coulter West of Ireland 8 The extensive Callows lying along the banks of the Suck. 1865 Gard. Chron. & Agric. Gaz. 15 July 663/2 The callows consist of low flat land near a river, and liable to be overflowed, as well as being always in a damp state in the driest seasons. 1883 Dundee Advert. 25 Aug. 6/1 All the callows on the banks [of the Shannon] to Lusmagh..are submerged. |
Hence ˈcallowness, ˈcallowy a.
| 1855 De Quincey in Page Life (1877) II. xviii. 90 Such advantage..as belongs to callowness or freshness. 1823 Monthly Mag. LV. 240 Like to a bird, who bestows on her callowy nestlings the morsel. |
▪ II. callow
var. of calloo, wild duck.