Definition of "callow" in English

adjective

1. Of a person: having no hair; bald, bare, hairless.

2. (masonry) Of a brick: unburnt.

3. Of 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.

4. In the life cycle of an animal: newly born or hatched; juvenile.

   • a callow bee

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

6. (obsolete) Of land: having no vegetation; bare.

noun

1. (entomology) Synonym 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. (geology) An alluvial flat.

3. (UK, regional, mining, archaic) The upper layer of rubble in a quarry which has to be removed to reach the material to be mined.

4. A young bird which has not developed feathers yet; a nestling.

5. Synonym of topsoil (“upper layer of soil”).

adjective

1. (Ireland) Of land: low-lying and near a river, and thus regularly submerged.

noun

1. (Ireland) A low-lying meadow near a river which is regularly submerged.

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