shallow
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈʃaləʊ/
ipa: /ˈʃæl.oʊ/
rhymes: -æləʊ
Forms: form: shallower
form: more shallow
form: shallowest
form: most shallow
Etymology: From Middle English schalowe (“not deep, shallow”); apparently related to Middle English schalde, schold, scheld, schealde (“shallow”), from Old English sċeald (“shallow”), from Proto-Germanic *skal-, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelh₁- (“to parch, dry out”). Related to Low German Scholl (“shallow water”). See also shoal.
Senses: examples: text: This crater is relatively shallow.
text: Sauté the onions in a shallow pan.
text: The corpus is massive, being deeper anteriorly and shallowest where the ramus takes origin. The corpi of both sides are more closely spaced to each other than in the living form, and the symphysis is narrower.
ref: 1977, Vincent J. Maglio, Dental and Skeletal Morphology of the Earliest Elephants, page 33:
text: The two shallower fibriscesses may represent lysis due to the spread of the infection that entered the phalanx at its presumed puncture wound, the deep fibriscess on the palmar surface.
ref: 2016 February 25, “Record-Breaking Pain: The Largest Number and Variety of Forelimb Bone Maladies in a Theropod Dinosaur”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI:
glosses: Having little depth; significantly less deep than wide.
examples: text: The water is shallow here.
glosses: Extending not far downward.
examples: text: It was a glamorous but shallow lifestyle.
glosses: Concerned mainly with superficial matters.
examples: text: The acting is good, but the characters are shallow.
glosses: Lacking interest or substance; flat; one-dimensional.
examples: text: shallow learning
text: The king was neither so shallow, nor so ill advertised, as not to perceive the intention of the French king.
ref: 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC:
synonyms: skin-deep
glosses: Not intellectually deep; not penetrating deeply; simple; not wise or knowing.
examples: text: the sound perfecter and not so shallow and jarring
ref: 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
glosses: Not deep in tone.
examples: text: Rosol spurned the chance to finish off a shallow second serve by spooning into the net, and a wild forehand took the set to 5-4, with the native of Prerov required to hold his serve for victory.
ref: 2012 June 28, Jamie Jackson, “Wimbledon 2012: Lukas Rosol shocked by miracle win over Rafael Nadal”, in The Guardian:
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
tennis
glosses: Not far forward, close to the net.
examples: text: a shallow climb
text: a shallow descent
text: a shallow bank angle
text: The planes then flew side by side with motors wide open in a very shallow climb[…].
ref: 1922 July 24, Aviation Magazine:
text: If they [the Apollo astronauts] come in too steeply, they will be crushed in the Earth’s atmosphere. If they come in too shallow, they will skip out and go into Earth orbit and not be able to return.
ref: 1968 December 20, CBS Evening News:
glosses: Not steep; close to horizontal.
raw_tags: of an angle
Synonyms: word: shallow
word: superficial
Hypernyms: word: short
Hyponyms: word: ankle-deep
word: knee-deep
word: skin-deep
Derived terms: broad and shallow
given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow
Shallowater
shallow brooks are noisy
shallow copy
shallow-copy
shallow cove
shallow embedding
shallow end
shallow fellow
shallow-fried
shallow-fry
shallow-hearted
shallowly
shallowness
shallow-waisted
Shallow Water
shallow-witted