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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."
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
Shibley Telhami, Time, 13 Oct. 2025
One memorable moment comes early, when another call between Polly and her mother tilts into dread as the voice on the phone morphs into a more callous, sinister being.
—J. Kim Murphy, Variety, 11 Oct. 2025
Sophie Monks Kaufman, IndieWire, 11 July 2025
These collectors scan the ground, their hands calloused from digging and poking the saw-toothed surfaces.
—Mike Belleme, New York Times, 31 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for callous
Cite this Entry
“Callous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/callous. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.
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