Definition

Callous refers to showing or having an insensitive and cruel disregard for others’ feelings. It can describe someone who is emotionally hardened or unfeeling towards the suffering of others.

Pronunciation

US English

UK English


See Synonyms, Antonyms and Usage

Excerpts from News Articles

1

The committee’s chair, Alicia Kearns, said detainees’ families had described “ministerial clumsiness, serious and avoidable errors and even callous and hurtful comments to families”.

Logo 2023-04-04 The Guardian

2

Even in films and TV shows that are superficially similar, or at least both period dramas – The Favourite, in which he played Harley, The Great, in which he really seems to be enjoying himself, as the bewigged and callous emperor Peter – he somehow resisted slipping comfortably into being the kind of actor who does that kind of thing.

Logo 2023-04-14 The Guardian

3

But it is happening again, and Trudeau and his callous government have done nothing to stop the blatant persecution of a Muslim Canadian.

Logo 2023-04-11 Al Jazeera

4

The FDA and mifepristone maker Danco Laboratories have for years disregarded “holes and red flags” in their safety data, “demonstrating callous disregard for women’s well-being, unborn life and statutory limits”, the lawyers said.

Logo 2023-04-18 Al Jazeera

5

Attorneys for Walker’s family called the move callous .

Logo 2023-04-10 MSNBC News

6

These stories have been accompanied by the case of Jasper Wu, a toddler who was killed during a highway shootout in 2021. Price’s office is currently reviewing the charges filed by her predecessor against the three men suspected of Wu’s killing, which, in turn, has activated the same local Chinese American groups who protested Boudin for what they saw to be his callous handling of a series of attacks on Asian Americans in the city. They believe that Price, like Boudin, is more committed to protecting criminals than protecting Asian residents.

Logo 2023-04-14 The New Yorker

7

Early in the pandemic, as offices were shuttered across the country and workers logged on from home, remote layoffs were a necessity. But some companies where workers have returned to offices are still opting to break the news virtually. Last week, McDonald’s asked corporate employees to work from home while it delivered layoff decisions that affected hundreds of workers. Twitter made a similar move back in November. Rather than close its offices when thinning its ranks in January, Google made layoff announcements over email, a move that some workers found callous .

Logo 2023-04-11 The Washington Post

8

Any delay in blocking access to the pill would “perpetuate substantial harm on the public,” the antiabortion group, the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, argued in the filing Tuesday shortly before a midnight deadline. The group has argued that the FDA acted unlawfully in approving the medication, and it alleges that the agency has “put politics above women’s health, demonstrating callous disregard for women’s well-being, unborn life, and statutory limits.”

Logo 2023-04-12 The Washington Post

9

The Western was once Hollywood’s signature genre, and “Imagining the Indian” revisits cowboys and Indians movies, television shows and cartoons in a rapid-fire introductory montage. Included are moments from “Stagecoach,” “The Searchers” and many lesser efforts, as well as a shockingly callous remark whose racism is all the more disturbing because the comment is uttered by the beloved Bugs Bunny.

Logo 2023-04-04 The Washington Post

10

In addition to this loss, you have also forced them to confront their guilt over their callous disregard toward you.

Logo 2023-04-17 The Washington Post

11

But the doctors said at least some of them have been called upon to treat women when there are complications from medication abortions. “The government callously dismissed these harms as ‘one-off incidents,’ but plaintiff doctors are deeply injured by being forced to perform and participate in elective abortions contrary to their most deeply held beliefs,” their filing said.

Logo 2023-04-18 The Washington Post

12

Therefore, under the present rules, he is liable to be deported to Rwanda. A cruel act in any circumstances, it is even more callous in his case. The fighter pilot, who must remain anonymous for obvious reasons, is a war hero and could easily have lost his life fighting the Taliban and defending British forces.

Logo 2023-04-04 The Independent

13

So there’s that to remember Lawson by; but also, having lived through it, it’s worth recalling what he did to the country. A self-styled “Tory radical”, he shared with Margaret Thatcher a vision of Britain sharply at odds with the post-war consensus that had gone before. Their project, nothing less than the recasting of the British economy and its “bloated” state, was obviously divisive, often callous , and, as is the way with any government, flawed.

Logo 2023-04-04 The Independent

14

In today’s fractured public sphere dominated by social media, it is easy to find networks of supporters and admirers for nearly anything under the sun, including the most repugnant and unconscionable acts of cruelty and callousness . In fact, there is ample evidence that mass shooters are celebrated by appreciative audiences and can serve as role models to other would-be heroes who seek to outscore them in casualty counts.

Logo 2023-04-13 The Conversation

15

The early episodes of Barry's current, final season give a sense of that answer, depicting jailers, FBI agents and prosecutors who are thickheaded, humorless and callous – in other words, way less sympathetic than even an emotionally crippled ex-hitman. Barry's self-centered girlfriend Sally, played with earnest abandon by Sarah Goldberg, heads back to her hometown, only to discover life with her emotionally distant mother in Missouri might be worse than facing the music with Barry in Los Angeles.

Logo 2023-04-14 NPR

16

This heartless, egoistical side of his character never receives any softening touches of self-doubt or modesty. Callous to the core. That’s him.

Logo 2023-04-04 The Spectator

17

The FDA and Danco Laboratories have for years disregarded "holes and red flags" in their safety data, "demonstrating callous disregard for women's well-being, unborn life, and statutory limits", they added.

Logo 2023-04-19 Channel NewsAsia

18

While she did not interview men for her study and says that she does not wish to portray them all as callous – there were many positive men in the lives of the women she interviewed, she says – almost invariably, the women’s stories of egg freezing were about men. So the book is “the views of men through women’s eyes”.

Logo 2023-04-23 The Guardian

19

“The potential image of us cherry-picking Americans out of the embassy while we leave the city to burn really runs counter to the messaging that we’ve been sending for the last year in Africa,” Hudson said. “Our foreign policy is bumping up against our domestic policy and interests. It’s ugly and it’s callous , but it’s sort of the political reality right now.”

Logo 2023-04-22 The Washington Post

20

Actions by the Celebrity crew caused the family “extreme trauma by visualizing Mr Jones’s body horrifically decomposed, and knowing their husband and father was callously and casually left in a beverage cooler, stripping him of his dignity,” the suit states.

Logo 2023-04-22 The Independent

21

After the wall came down – with the more benign cousin of today’s callous capitalism the victor – we took a summer trip to Berlin in the ever-dependable family BMW (it looked like an East German Trabbi compared to modern cars today). I remember sitting in the back listening to Madonna’s latest album on my Walkman as the bright energetic Berlin streets slipped by the car window. Besides the Brandenburg Gate, we bought giant furry Russian winter hats and military cap badges and chunks of the wall being sold on lines of tables.

Logo 2023-04-19 The Spectator

22

Ms Abbott argued with appalling callousness (and, frankly, ignorance) that Irish, Jewish and Traveller people had “undoubtedly experienced prejudice”, but added: “This is similar to racism and the two words are often used as if they are interchangeable.”

Logo 2023-04-24 The Independent

23

Celebrity's actions caused the family "extreme trauma by visualizing Mr Jones's body horrifically decomposed, and knowing their husband and father was callously and casually left in a beverage cooler, stripping him of his dignity," the suit reads.

Logo 2023-04-25 EURO News

24

I’m saying this as someone as accustomed to being out as in, by the way. I have friends still who are much closer with each other than they are with me, so it’s not as callous or clueless a suggestion as it may seem.

Logo 2023-04-26 The Washington Post

25

Mukasey called the government’s contentions “ callous , misleading, naive and dangerous to (Lieber’s) health” and said his client has been punished enough because of his damaged reputation.

Logo 2023-04-26 Politico

26

When I first saw it yesterday, I really had to dig deep to make sure I could believe what I was reading, as it felt so shocking. So callous . It’s not just that it’s a PR nightmare waiting to happen. It’s that it’s a complete refutation of our leadership, and specifically of people like Pill himself.

Logo 2023-04-26 The Independent

27

But around Africa, unfortunately, state-led homophobia is on the rise. Politicians and religious leaders continue to characterise homosexuality as a foreign vice. This callous and imprudent postcolonial quest to concoct cultural and moral exceptionalism has led to attempts to repudiate and smother the longstanding presence of homosexuals in African societies.

Logo 2023-04-26 Al Jazeera

28

Mussolini might have remained a hero until his death had not his callous xenophobia and arrogance, his misapprehension of Italy’s fundamental necessities, and his dreams of empire led him to seek foreign conquests. His eye rested first upon Ethiopia, which, after 10 months of preparations, rumours, threats, and hesitations, Italy invaded in October 1935.


29

However, a 2012 study does provide some support for a causal link. Researchers found that improving emotion recognition in callous -unemotional youth through training reduced behavioural problems and increased empathy for others’ feelings, when compared to treatment-as-usual. This means that when callous youth were helped to identify how others feel, some of their behavioural issues resolved.

Logo 2023-05-03 The Conversation

30

Sir Keir implied that homeowners would be richer if only the Sunaks would turn down the temperature a notch. But the parasitic PM refuses to do so because he’s a callous , arrogant despot. This may be gutter politics but who says it doesn’t work?

Logo 2023-05-03 The Spectator

31

“The state’s callous disregard for people’s lives and rights should sound the alarm for any country that has sold or plans to sell arms to Peru,” Marina Navarro, executive director of Amnesty International Peru, said in the statement.

Logo 2023-05-03 Al Jazeera

32

And throughout that doomed soap opera, as Charles conducted an affair with our future Queen Camilla Parker-Bowles — while demonstrating epic callousness toward his first wife — he fell out of favor with the public.

Logo 2023-05-05 Politico

33

“What’s more, the fact that someone who took the life of a distressed, mentally ill human being on a subway could be set free without facing any consequences is shocking, and evidences the city’s callous indifference to the lives of those who are homeless and psychiatrically unwell,” he added. “This is an absolute travesty that must be investigated immediately.”

Logo 2023-05-05 The Independent

34

The killing has sparked a heated conversation in the city, with critics arguing local officials and the media alike have callously blamed Neely for his own death at the hands of a vigilante.

Logo 2023-05-05 The Independent

35

In numerous costume changes, he was swathed in regal hand-me-downs for his investiture and crowning; the rich shimmering brocades having taxed the eyesight and calloused the fingers of embroiderers over 200 years.

Logo 2023-05-06 The Guardian