Adjacent Words

Shallow definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SHAL'LOW, a.
1. Not deep; having little depth; shoal; as shallow water; a shallow stream; a shallow brook.
2. Not deep; not entering far into the earth; as a shallow furrow; a shallow trench.
3. Not intellectually deep; not profound; not penetrating deeply into abstruse subjects; superficial; as a shallow mind or understanding; shallow skill.
Deep vers'd in books, and shallow in himself. Milton.
SHAL'LOW, n. A shoal; a shelf; a flat; a sand-bank; any place where the water is not deep.
A swift stream is not heard in the channel, but upon shallows of gravel.
Bacon.
Dash'd on the shallows of the moving sand. Dryden.
SHAL'LOW, v.t. To make shallow. [Little used.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: lacking physical depth; having little spatial extension downward or inward from an outer surface or backward or outward from a center; "shallow water"; "a shallow dish"; "a shallow cut"; "a shallow closet"; "established a shallow beachhead"; "hit the ball to shallow left field" [ant: deep]
2: not deep or strong; not affecting one deeply; "shallow breathing"; "a night of shallow fretful sleep"; "in a shallow trance" [ant: deep]
3: lacking depth of intellect or knowledge; concerned only with what is obvious; "shallow people"; "his arguments seemed shallow and tedious" n
1: a stretch of shallow water [syn: shoal, shallow] v
1: make shallow; "The silt shallowed the canal" [syn: shallow, shoal]
2: become shallow; "the lake shallowed over time" [syn: shallow, shoal]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Middle English schalowe; probably akin to Old English sceald shallow — more at skeleton Date: 14th century 1. having little depth <shallow water> 2. having little extension inward or backward <office buildings have taken the form of shallow slabs — Lewis Mumford> 3. a. penetrating only the easily or quickly perceived <shallow generalizations> b. lacking in depth of knowledge, thought, or feeling <a shallow demagogue> 4. displacing comparatively little air ; weak <shallow breathing> Synonyms: see superficial • shallowly adverb • shallowness noun II. verb Date: 1510 transitive verb to make shallow intransitive verb to become shallow III. noun Date: 1569 a shallow place or area in a body of water — usually used in plural but sing. or plural in constr.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj., n., & v. --adj. 1 of little depth. 2 superficial, trivial (a shallow mind). --n. (often in pl.) a shallow place. --v.intr. & tr. become or make shallow. Derivatives: shallowly adv. shallowness n. Etymology: ME, prob. rel. to schald, OE sceald SHOAL(2)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rudd Rudd, n. [See Rud, n.] (Zo["o]l.) A fresh-water European fish of the Carp family (Leuciscus erythrophthalmus). It is about the size and shape of the roach, but it has the dorsal fin farther back, a stouter body, and red irises. Called also redeye, roud, finscale, and shallow. A blue variety is called azurine, or blue roach.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Shallow Shal"low, a. [Compar. Shallower; superl. Shallowest.] [OE. schalowe, probably originally, sloping or shelving; cf. Icel. skj[=a]lgr wry, squinting, AS. sceolh, D. & G. scheel, OHG. schelah. Cf. Shelve to slope, Shoal shallow.] 1. Not deep; having little depth; shoal. ``Shallow brooks, and rivers wide.'' --Milton. 2. Not deep in tone. [R.] The sound perfecter and not so shallow and jarring. --Bacon. 3. Not intellectually deep; not profound; not penetrating deeply; simple; not wise or knowing; ignorant; superficial; as, a shallow mind; shallow learning. The king was neither so shallow, nor so ill advertised, as not to perceive the intention of the French king. --Bacon. Deep versed in books, and shallow in himself. --Milton.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Shallow Shal"low, n. 1. A place in a body of water where the water is not deep; a shoal; a flat; a shelf. A swift stream is not heard in the channel, but upon shallows of gravel. --Bacon. Dashed on the shallows of the moving sand. --Dryden. 2. (Zo["o]l.) The rudd. [Prov. Eng.]

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Shallow Shal"low, v. t. To make shallow. --Sir T. Browne.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Shallow Shal"low, v. i. To become shallow, as water.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(shallower, shallowest) 1. A shallow container, hole, or area of water measures only a short distance from the top to the bottom. Put the milk in a shallow dish... The water is quite shallow for some distance. ? deep ADJ 2. If you describe a person, piece of work, or idea as shallow, you disapprove of them because they do not show or involve any serious or careful thought. I think he is shallow, vain and untrustworthy... ADJ [disapproval] 3. If your breathing is shallow, you take only a very small amount of air into your lungs at each breath. She began to hear her own taut, shallow breathing. ? deep ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. a. 1. Shoal. 2. Superficial, empty, silly, slight, unintelligent, simple, ignorant. 3. Flimsy, trivial, frivolous, trifling, foolish, puerile, trashy. II. n. Shoal, flat shelf, sand-bank.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

A WHIP hat, so called from the want of depth in the crown. LILLY SHALLOW, a WHITE Whip hat.

Moby Thesaurus

airy, amateur, amateurish, ankle-deep, asinine, bank, bar, birdbrained, birdwitted, catchpenny, coral reef, cursory, dabbling, depthless, dilettante, dilettantish, empty, epidermal, fatuous, featherbrained, few, fill in, fill up, flat, flighty, flimsy, fluffy, foolish, footling, ford, fribble, fribbling, frivolous, frothy, futile, half-assed, half-baked, half-cocked, idle, immature, inane, inconsequential, inconsiderable, insignificant, jejune, knee-deep, light, little, low, meager, miniature, negligible, no great shakes, not deep, nugacious, nugatory, on the surface, otiose, petty, picayune, picayunish, reef, sandbank, sandbar, sciolistic, shallow-headed, shallow-minded, shallow-pated, shallow-rooted, shallow-witted, shallows, shelf, shoal, shoal water, shoals, short, silly, silt up, skin-deep, slender, slight, small, smattering, sophomoric, superficial, surface, thin, tidal flats, tiny, trifling, trite, trivial, unimportant, unprofound, vacuous, vain, vapid, volatile, wetlands, windy