calves

Noun

calf (plural calves or (nonstandard) calfs)

1. A young cow or bull of any bovid, such as domestic cattle or buffalo.
   • And Goldenhorns calved. A great day in the wilderness, a joy and a delight. They gave her flour-wash, and Isak himself saw to it there was no stint of flour, though he had carried it all the way himself, on his back. And there lay a pretty calf, a beauty, red-flanked like her mother, and comically...1917, Knut Hamsun, Growth of the Soil, Book 1, Ch.3, at p.22
2. Leather made of the skin of domestic calves; especially, a fine, light-coloured leather used in bookbinding.
   • We find now, that instead of leather made from sheep, calf, goat, and pig-skins, each having, when finished, its own characteristic surface, that sheepskins are got up to look like calf, morocco, or pigskin; that calf is grained to resemble morocco or so polished and fattened as to have but little...1900 Douglas Cockerell: Leather for Bookbinding. Journal of the Society of Arts, March 30 1900, p. 406
3. The young of various animals, especially elephant, giraffe, reindeer, seal, or whale (also indiscriminately used of other animals).
4. A mass of ice broken from a larger glacier, ice shelf, or iceberg.
   • 1915 (published), 1848 (first written), Elisha Kent Kane, Adrift in the Arctic Ice Pack
     Our swell ceases with this wind, and the floes seem disposed to come together again; but the days of winter have passed by, and the interposing calves prevent the apposition of the edges
5. A small island, near a larger island.
   • Situated in the north of the Irish Sea and to the south-west of the isle of Man, the Calf of Man is ideally placed on the bird migration routes over the western side of the British Isles. Its importance for migrating and breeding birds had been recognised long before the observatory was established...2010 Kate Hawkins Calf of Man. In: Bird Observatories of Britain and Ireland, ed Mike Archer, Mark Grantham, et al. →ISBN (pages unnumbered)
6. A cabless railroad engine.

See all 9 meanings of calf

Verb

calve (third-person singular simple present calves, present participle calving, simple past and past participle calved)

1. (intransitive) To give birth to a calf.
   • The farmer could tell Bessie was about to calve.
2. (intransitive) To assist in a cow’s giving birth to a calf.
   • The farmer calved Bessie for almost two hours.
3. (transitive) To give birth to (a calf).
4. (especially, figuratively, intransitive, a glacier, an ice sheet) To shed a large piece.
   • The glacier was starting to calve even as we watched.
5. (especially, figuratively, intransitive) To break off.
   • The sea was dangerous because of icebergs calving off the nearby glacier.
6. (especially, figuratively, transitive, a glacier, an ice sheet) To shed (a large piece); to set loose (a mass of ice).
   • The glacier was starting to calve an iceberg even as we watched.