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shallow. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
shallow, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
shallow in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
shallow you have here. The definition of the word
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English
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.
Pronunciation
Adjective
shallow (comparative shallower, superlative shallowest)
- Having little depth; significantly less deep than wide.
This crater is relatively shallow.
Sauté the onions in a shallow pan.
- Extending not far downward.
The water is shallow here.
- Concerned mainly with superficial matters.
It was a glamorous but shallow lifestyle.
- Lacking interest or substance.
The acting is good, but the characters are shallow.
- Not intellectually deep; not penetrating deeply; simple; not wise or knowing.
- Synonym: skin-deep
shallow learning
1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, , London: W Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC:The king was neither so shallow, nor so ill advertised, as not to perceive the intention of the French king.
- (obsolete) Not deep in tone.
1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. , 3rd edition, London: William Rawley; rinted by J H for William Lee , →OCLC:the sound perfecter and not so shallow and jarring
- (tennis) Not far forward, close to the net.
2012 June 28, Jamie Jackson, “Wimbledon 2012: Lukas Rosol shocked by miracle win over Rafael Nadal”, in The Guardian: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.
- (of an angle) Not steep; close to horizontal.
- a shallow climb
- a shallow descent
- a shallow bank angle
1922 July 24, Aviation Magazine:The planes then flew side by side with motors wide open in a very shallow climb […] .
1968 December 20, CBS Evening News: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.
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations
having little depth and significantly less deep than wide
- Albanian: cekët (sq)
- Arabic: ضَحِل (ḍaḥil)
- Armenian: ծանծաղ (hy) (cancaġ)
- Azerbaijani: yastı (az) (dialect)
- Bashkir: һай (hay)
- Basque: azaleko (eu)
- Belarusian: ме́лкі (mjélki), неглыбо́кі (njehlybóki)
- Bikol Central: hababaw (bcl)
- Bulgarian: пли́тък (bg) (plítǎk)
- Catalan: pla (ca), poc profund, superficial (ca)
- Cebuano: mabaw
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 淺/浅 (zh) (qiǎn)
- Cornish: bas
- Czech: mělký (cs)
- Danish: flad (da), lav (da)
- Dutch: ondiep (nl), laag (nl)
- Esperanto: malprofunda
- Even: арбукун (arʙukun)
- Evenki: арба (arba)
- Finnish: matala (fi), laakea (fi) (of vertical depth i.e. depth downwards), syvyydeltään kapea, syvyyssuunnassa kapea (of horizontal depth, such as of a shelf or cabinet)
- French: peu profond, superficiel (fr)
- Galician: superficial (gl) m or f
- Georgian: მარჩხობი (marčxobi), წყალმარჩხი (c̣q̇almarčxi)
- German: flach (de); (of bodies of water also) seicht (de), untief
- Greek: ρηχός (el) (richós)
- Ancient: βροχθώδης (brokhthṓdēs)
- Hungarian: lapos (hu), sekély (hu)
- Ingrian: matala
- Interlingua: pauco profunde
- Irish: éadomhain, tanaí
- Italian: superficiale (it)
- Japanese: 浅い (ja) (asai)
- Komi-Zyrian: ляпкыдін (ľapkydin), лажмыдик (lažmyďik)
- Korean: 얕다 (ko) (yatda)
- Latgalian: seklys
- Latin: vadōsus
- Latvian: sekls (lv)
- Lithuanian: seklus
- Macedonian: плиток (plitok)
- Manchu: ᠮᡳᠴᡳᡥᡳᠶᠠᠨ (micihiyan)
- Mansaka: mababaw
- Manx: aaghowin
- Maori: kōranga (of plant roots), kirimoko, pāhakehake (referring to the shape of the hull of a boat), pākihikihi (of the depth of water), koraha (of the depth of water over tidal mudflats), pāpaku (of the depth of water)
- Maranao: mababaw
- Mari:
- Eastern Mari: куакш (kuakš), таляка (taĺaka), изи (izi)
- Western Mari: коаш (koaš)
- Nanai: харба (harba)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: flat (no), lav (no), låg (no) grunn (no)
- Nynorsk: flat, låg, grunn
- Occitan: superficial
- Old Church Slavonic:
- Cyrillic: мѣлъкъ (mělŭkŭ)
- Old English: undēop
- Persian: چاله (fa) (čāle), تنک (fa) (tonok), تخت (fa) (taxt)
- Plautdietsch: flak
- Polish: płytki (pl), niegłęboki, miałki (pl) (dialectal)
- Portuguese: raso (pt), superficial (pt)
- Quechua: ch'aqcha
- Romanian: plat (ro), puțin adânc
- Russian: ме́лкий (ru) (mélkij), неглубо́кий (ru) (neglubókij)
- Scottish Gaelic: eu-domhainn
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: пли́так
- Roman: plítak (sh)
- Slovak: plytký
- Slovene: plitev
- Spanish: poco profundo m, superficial (es)
- Swedish: ytlig (sv) c
- Tagalog: mababaw
- Thai: ตื้น (th) (dtʉ̂ʉn)
- Tocharian B: tparṣke
- Turkish: sığ (tr)
- Turkmen: ýasy, tekiz
- Udmurt: куаси (kuaśi), лазег (laźeg)
- Ukrainian: мілки́й (milkýj), неглибо́кий (nehlybókyj), плитки́й (plytkýj)
- Veps: madal
- Vietnamese: nông (vi), cạn (vi)
- Welsh: bas (cy)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: mevavew
- Zazaki: qam
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extending not far downward
concerned mainly with superficial matters
lacking interest or substance
not intellectually deep; not penetrating deeply; simple; not wise or knowing.
Translations to be checked
Noun
shallow (plural shallows)
- A shallow portion of an otherwise deep body of water.
- The ship ran aground in an unexpected shallow.
1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. , 3rd edition, London: William Rawley; rinted by J H for William Lee , →OCLC:A swift stream is not heard in the channel, but […] upon shallows of gravel.
1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:dashed on the shallows of the moving sand
1895, H. G. Wells, The Time Machine:It happened that, as I was watching some of the little people bathing in a shallow, one of them was seized with cramp and began drifting downstream.
1941, Theodore Roethke, “The Premonition”, in Open House; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, 1975, →ISBN, page 6:He dipped his hand in the shallow:
Water ran over and under
Hair on a narrow wrist bone; […]
- A fish, the rudd.
- (historical) A costermonger's barrow.
1871, Belgravia, volume 14, page 213:You might have gone there quite as easily, and enjoyed yourself much more, had your mode of conveyance been the railway, or a hansom, or even a costermonger's shallow.
Usage notes
- Usually used in the plural form.
Translations
shallow portion of an otherwise deep body of water
See also
Verb
shallow (third-person singular simple present shallows, present participle shallowing, simple past and past participle shallowed)
- (transitive, intransitive) To make or become less deep.
2009 February 6, Andrew Z. Krug et al., “Signature of the End-Cretaceous Mass Extinction in the Modern Biota”, in Science, volume 323, number 5915, →DOI, pages 767–771:The shallowing of Cenozoic age-frequency curves from tropics to poles thus appears to reflect the decreasing probability for genera to reach and remain established in progressively higher latitudes ( 9 ).
References
Anagrams