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A callus is a hard, thickened area of skin that develops usually from friction or irritation over time. Such a hardened area often leaves one less sensitive to the touch, so it's no surprise that the adjective callous, in addition to describing skin that is hard and thick, can also be used as a synonym for harsh or insensitive. Both callus and callous come via Middle English from Latin. The figurative sense of callous entered English almost 300 years after the literal sense, and Robert Louis Stevenson used it aptly when he wrote in Treasure Island "But, indeed, from what I saw, all these buccaneers were as callous as the sea they sailed on."
Synonyms
Adjective
- affectless
- case-hardened
- cold-blooded
- compassionless
- desensitized
- hard
- hard-boiled
- hard-hearted
- heartless
- indurate
- inhuman
- inhumane
- insensate
- insensitive
- ironhearted
- merciless
- obdurate
- pachydermatous
- pitiless
- remorseless
- ruthless
- slash-and-burn
- soulless
- stony
- stoney
- stonyhearted
- take-no-prisoners
- thick-skinned
- uncharitable
- unfeeling
- unmerciful
- unsparing
- unsympathetic
Examples of callous in a Sentence
Benedict Nightingale, New York Times Book Review, 10 May 1987
… the scenes involving the snotty, callous dean ring false right from the start …
—Pauline Kael, New Yorker, 8 Apr. 1985
Patient, cold and callous, our hands wrapped in socks, we waited to snowball the cats.
—Dylan Thomas, "A Child's Christmas in Wales,"
in Quite Early One Morning, 1954
a selfish and callous young man
a callous refusal to help the poor
R. Eric Thomas, The Mercury News, 11 Nov. 2024
But what marks the shoot with an indelible stain of guilt is her callous indifference toward the well-being of the cast and crew, in her reckless quest to make the film as real as possible.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 4 Sep. 2024
Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY, 20 Sep. 2024
Now, the fracture has healed but calloused, making flight difficult, the center said.
—Tony Roberts, Baltimore Sun, 18 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for callous 
Dictionary Entries Near callous
Cite this Entry
“Callous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/callous. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.
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