calf
Meanings
- A young cow or bull of any bovid, such as domestic cattle or buffalo.
- Leather made of the skin of domestic calves; especially, a fine, light-coloured leather used in bookbinding.
- The young of various animals, especially elephant, giraffe, reindeer, seal, or whale (also indiscriminately used of other animals).
- A mass of ice broken from a larger glacier, ice shelf, or iceberg.
- A small island, near a larger island.
- A cabless railroad engine.
- An awkward or silly boy or young man; any silly person; a dolt.
- The back of the leg below the knee.
- The muscle in the back of the leg below the knee.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
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”) * Norwegian Nynorsk kalv (“calf”) * Swedish kalv (“calf”)