Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The fleshy muscular back part of the human leg between the knee and ankle.
  • noun A young cow or bull.
  • noun One of the young of certain other mammals, such as moose, elephants, or whales.
  • noun Calfskin leather.
  • noun A large floating chunk of ice split off from a glacier, iceberg, or floe.
  • noun An awkward, callow youth.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The part of a stocking which covers the calf of the leg.
  • noun The thick fleshy part of the human leg behind, between the knee and the ankle, chiefly formed by the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles, which are relatively larger in man than in any other animal, for the better support of the body in the erect attitude.
  • noun The young of the cow or of other bovine quadrupeds.
  • noun The young of marine mammals, as seals and cetaceans, the adults of which are called bulls and cows.
  • noun In heraldry, a fawn.
  • noun Calfskin leather: as, a shoe made of calf; a book bound in calf.
  • noun A bookbinding in calfskin.
  • noun An immature or raw person; a silly dolt; a weak or cowardly man.
  • noun A small island lying near a large one (the two being compared to a cow with its calf): as, the calf of Man.
  • noun A mass of earth which separates from the walls of a cutting or excavation, and falls in. Compare calve, 3, and cave.
  • noun Nautical, a mass of floe-ice, breaking from under the floe and rising to the surface of the water, often with violence.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The young of the cow, or of the Bovine family of quadrupeds. Also, the young of some other mammals, as of the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and whale.
  • noun Leather made of the skin of the calf; especially, a fine, light-colored leather used in bookbinding.
  • noun colloq. An awkward or silly boy or young man; any silly person; a dolt.
  • noun A small island near a larger.
  • noun A small mass of ice set free from the submerged part of a glacier or berg, and rising to the surface.
  • noun The fleshy hinder part of the leg below the knee.
  • noun jelly made from the feet of calves. The gelatinous matter of the feet is extracted by boiling, and is flavored with sugar, essences, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun anatomy The back of the leg below the knee.
  • noun The muscle in the back of the leg below the knee.
  • noun A young cow or bull.
  • noun A young elephant, seal or whale (also used of some other animals).
  • noun A chunk of ice broken off of a larger glacier, ice shelf, or iceberg.
  • noun A small island, near a larger island.
  • noun A cabless railroad engine
  • noun informal, dated An awkward or silly boy or young man; any silly person; a dolt.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun young of various large placental mammals e.g. whale or giraffe or elephant or buffalo
  • noun young of domestic cattle
  • noun the muscular back part of the shank
  • noun fine leather from the skin of a calf

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old Norse kālfi; possibly akin to calf (from its shape).]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English cealf.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • In bookbinding, the most commonly used leather, smooth-textured and capable of taking most dyes.

    February 25, 2008

  • and a verb usage overlooked by Weirdnet - how a big iceberg gives birth to a baby iceberg

    April 25, 2008

  • They plop out through the berg canal and into the ocean.

    April 25, 2008