shallow

adj

Etymology: From Middle English schalowe (“not deep, shallow”); apparently related to Middle English schalde, schold, scheld, schealde (“shallow”), from Old English sċeald (“shallow”), from Proto-Germanic *skal-, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelh₁- (“to parch, dry out”). Related to Low German Scholl (“shallow water”). See also shoal.

1. Having little depth; significantly less deep than wide.

   “This crater is relatively shallow.”

   “Sauté the onions in a shallow pan.”

2. Extending not far downward.

   “The water is shallow here.”

3. Concerned mainly with superficial matters.

   “It was a glamorous but shallow lifestyle.”

4. Lacking interest or substance; flat; one-dimensional.

   “The acting is good, but the characters are shallow.”

5. Not intellectually deep; not penetrating deeply; simple; not wise or knowing.

   “shallow learning”

   “The king was neither so shallow, nor so ill advertised, as not to perceive the intention of the French king.”

6. Not deep in tone.

   “the sound perfecter and not so shallow and jarring”

7. Not far forward, close to the net.

   “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.”

8. Not steep; close to horizontal.

   “a shallow climb”

   “a shallow descent”

name

1. A surname.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English schalowe (“not deep, shallow”); apparently related to Middle English schalde, schold, scheld, schealde (“shallow”), from Old English sċeald (“shallow”), from Proto-Germanic *skal-, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelh₁- (“to parch, dry out”). Related to Low German Scholl (“shallow water”). See also shoal.

1. A shallow portion of an otherwise deep body of water.

   “The ship ran aground in an unexpected shallow.”

   “A swift stream is not heard in the channel, but […]upon shallows of gravel.”

2. A fish, the rudd.
3. A costermonger's barrow.

   “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.”

verb

Etymology: From Middle English schalowe (“not deep, shallow”); apparently related to Middle English schalde, schold, scheld, schealde (“shallow”), from Old English sċeald (“shallow”), from Proto-Germanic *skal-, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelh₁- (“to parch, dry out”). Related to Low German Scholl (“shallow water”). See also shoal.

1. To make or become less deep.

   “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 ).”