Definition of "shallow"

shallow

/ˈʃaləʊ/

adjective
comparative shallower, superlative shallowest
1. Having little depth; significantly less deep than wide.
2. Extending not far downward.
3. Concerned mainly with superficial matters.
4. Lacking interest or substance.
5. Not intellectually deep; not penetrating deeply; simple; not wise or knowing.
  Quotations
  The king was neither so shallow, nor so ill advertised, as not to perceive the intention of the French king.
  1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret
6. (obsolete) Not deep in tone.
  Quotations
  the sound perfecter and not so shallow and jarring
  1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […]
7. (tennis) Not far forward, close to the net.
  Quotations
  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.
  2012 June 28, Jamie Jackson, “Wimbledon 2012: Lukas Rosol shocked by miracle win over Rafael Nadal”, in The Guardian‎
8. (of an angle) Not steep; close to horizontal.
  Quotations
  The planes then flew side by side with motors wide open in a very shallow climb […] .
  1922 July 24, Aviation Magazine
  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.
  1968 December 20, CBS Evening News
noun
plural shallows
1. A shallow portion of an otherwise deep body of water.
  Quotations
  A swift stream is not heard in the channel, but […] upon shallows of gravel.
  1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […]
  dashed on the shallows of the moving sand
  1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]
  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.
  1895, H. G. Wells, The Time Machine
2. A fish, the rudd.
3. (historical) A costermonger's barrow.
  Quotations
  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.
  1871, Belgravia, volume 14, page 213
verb
third-person singular simple present shallows, present participle shallowing, simple past and past participle shallowed
1. (transitive, intransitive) To make or become less deep.
  Quotations
  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 ).
  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, pages 767–771

Definition of "shallow"

shallow

adjective

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noun

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verb

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