callow

[US]/ˈkæləʊ/
[UK]/ˈkæloʊ/
Frequency: Very High

Translation

adj. lacking adult sophistication; immature; inexperienced

Phrases & Collocations

a callow youth

callow innocence

callow behavior

Example Sentences

earnest and callow undergraduates.

He was only a callow youth.

He was a callow youth when he joined the newspaper.

The callow youth was eager to prove himself in the new job.

Her callow behavior showed her lack of experience.

He spoke with a callow confidence that belied his inexperience.

The callow recruit struggled to adapt to military life.

She dismissed his callow attempts at flirting.

The callow artist's work lacked depth and maturity.

His callow attitude towards money management led to financial troubles.

The callow singer struggled to convey emotion in her performance.

Despite his callow appearance, he was actually quite knowledgeable.

The callow student's lack of focus affected his academic performance.

Real-world Examples

A troop of newly arrived students, very young, pink and callow, followed nervously, rather abjectly, at the Director's heels.

Source: Brave New World

Now cynics like to mock the supposedly spoiled or callow youth of the new millennia.

Source: 2020 Celebrity College Graduation Speech

They tried to cajole a callow boy to carry the caisson.

Source: Pan Pan

Her callow heart made an epoch of the incident; she considered her array of feelings, for and against.

Source: A pair of blue eyes (Part 1)

On the other hand, he sees a callow youth and addresses himself to the obvious callowness, and thereby makes himself thoroughly disliked.

Source: Southwest Associated University English Textbook

But in a moment he recovered his poise and assumed the bland and consciously tolerant smile of an intellectual among spoiled and callow youth.

Source: Beauty and Destruction (Part 1)

Of that 300, one hundred are too old and too silly, one hundred too young and too callow which leaves just about a hundred MP's to fill 100 governmental posts.

Source: Yes, Minister Season 1

Never, even at his most callow, had he gone to see any woman with an eagerness as great as the one that was taking him to Holly Pavement this morning.

Source: A handsome face.

In his eight years as Ronald Reagan's vice-president, though they had sparred bitterly in the 1980 primaries over Reagan's " voodoo economics" and his callow Hollywood sparkle, he never criticised or upstaged him.

Source: The Economist (Summary)

Toby, in a remarkable dressing-gown, was sitting behind an array of silver coffee things; and behind him, in still more remarkable day clothes, hovered a callow and eager young man clutching a notebook.

Source: A handsome face.

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