Callow Meaning and Usage

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Meaning:

adjective

1. immature or inexperienced

Usage : a callow [=immature] youth, training callow [=inexperienced] recruits for the army; often disapproving used to describe a young person who does not have much experience and does not know how to behave the way adults behave


2. (of a young bird) featherless; unfledged. Destitute of feathers; naked;


noun

1. a recently hatched worker ant.

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Forms:
callowness : noun

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Synonyms: inexperienced, naive, unsophisticated, bald, bare, crude, green, immature, inexperienced, infantile, juvenile, marshy, naive, raw, shallow, untried, puerile, jejune, unseasoned, untrained, adolescent, guileless, artless, unworldly.

Antonyms: experienced, initiated, mature, sophisticated

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Use Callow in a sentence:

1. Although Evelyn was hardly callow, she was not yet experienced in the ways of the world.
Adjective: naïve

2. The young girl shrugged off the suggestion in a callow manner.
Adjective: rude, immature

3. The new person you just hired is very callow.
Adjective: naïve, immature

4. The private thought he had learned a lot in his 22 years, but next to the seasoned veterans he was just a callow youth.
Adjective: inexperienced

5. Back when I was a callow college student," said Emma, "I paid little attention to the advice given to me by my professors.
Adjective: naïve, immature, rude

6. .....grow up very quickly, he told the callow youth, 'I used to do that when I was your age.
Adjective: immature, rude

7. She said "I usually dont date men younger than 25 because I find that they are callow."
Adjective: naïve

8. A callow kid comes to New York after college and takes a series of lame-ass jobs: from advertising assistant for a detergent company to temp receptionist to his disastrous attempt at waiting tables.
Adjective: naïve, immature.

9. Not all of Eugenes anarchists are callow youths, though. Some are genuine, steadfastly committed, and deep-thinking.
Adjective: immature

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Origin:
"Callow" comes from "calu," a word that meant "bald" in Middle English and Old English. By the 17th century, "callow" had come to mean "without feathers" and was applied to young birds not yet ready for flight. The term was also used for those who hadn't yet spread their wings in a figurative sense. "Callow" continues to mean "inexperienced" or "unsophisticated" today.

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