calf

CEFRB1

/kɑːf/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A young cow or other large mammal.

  2. 02

    noun

    The back part of the lower leg.

Examples

  • The cow gave birth to a calf with two heads.

  • The cow cast her calf.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
2
Synonyms
4

Also pronounced

  • /kaːf/
  • /kaf/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Leather made of the skin of domestic calves; especially, a fine, light-coloured leather used in bookbinding.

  2. The young of various animals, especially elephant, giraffe, reindeer, seal, or whale (also indiscriminately used of other animals).

  3. A young cow or bull of any bovid, such as domestic cattle or buffalo.

More examples

In context

  • And Goldenhorns calved. A great day in the wilderness, a joy and a delight. They gave her flour-wash, and Isak himself saw to it there was no stint of flour, though he had carried it all the way himself, on his back. And there lay a pretty calf, a beauty, red...

  • Situated in the north of the Irish Sea and to the south-west of the isle of Man, the Calf of Man is ideally placed on the bird migration routes over the western side of the British Isles. Its importance for migrating and breeding birds had been recognised lon...

  • We find now, that instead of leather made from sheep, calf, goat, and pig-skins, each having, when finished, its own characteristic surface, that sheepskins are got up to look like calf, morocco, or pigskin; that calf is grained to resemble morocco or so poli...

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The newborn blank wobbled on its legs beside the grazing cow.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English calf, from Anglian Old English cælf, calf (West Saxon ċealf), from Proto-West Germanic *kalb, from Proto-Germanic *kalbaz, further etymology unknown. Cognates * Scots caff (“calf”) * Scots calf (“calf”) * Scots cauf (“calf”) * Scots cawf (“calf”) * North Frisian Kualev (“calf”) * North Frisian kualew (“calf”) * North Frisian kuulew (“calf”) * Saterland Frisian Koolich (“calf”) * West Frisian keal (“calf”) * German Kalb (“calf”) * Luxembourgish Kallef (“calf”) * Limburgish kalf (“calf”) * Dutch kalf (“calf”) * Vilamovian kołb (“calf”) * Vilamovian kołp (“calf”) * Faroese kálvur (“calf”) * Icelandic kálfur (“calf”) * Danish kalv (“calf”) * Norwegian Bokmål kalv (“calf”) *...