callow.

1. Lacking experience or maturity, often with the awkwardness or poor judgment of youth.

2. Not yet having grown feathers, especially of a young bird.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• a callow recruit
• callow confidence

On the page

The callow recruit mistook the silence for permission to joke.

Her callow confidence faltered when the decision acquired real consequences.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary. Forms: Comparative more callow; superlative most callow where gradation is meaningful. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.