Link Centre Dictionary

shallow

shal·low

UK/ˈʃæləʊ/ US/ˈʃæloʊ/ fairly common slang
adjective (3) noun (1) verb (2)

adjective

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”
Antonyms
Similar
2.

not deep or strong; not affecting one deeply

  • “shallow breathing”
  • “a night of shallow fretful sleep”
  • “in a shallow trance”
Antonyms
Similar
3.

lacking depth of intellect or knowledge; concerned only with what is obvious

  • “shallow people”
  • “his arguments seemed shallow and tedious”
Similar

noun

1.

a stretch of shallow water

Synonyms

verb

1.

make shallow

  • “The silt shallowed the canal”
Synonyms
2.

become shallow

  • “the lake shallowed over time”
Synonyms

Origin

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.

Phrases

  • broad and shallow
  • given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow
  • Shallow Bay
  • shallow brooks are noisy
  • shallow copy
  • shallow cove
  • shallow embedding
  • shallow end

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.