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CALF
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Irregular inflected form: calves
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Young of domestic cattle
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("calf" is a kind of...):
young mammal (any immature mammal)
Meronyms (parts of "calf"):
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "calf"):
dogie; dogy; leppy (motherless calf in a range herd of cattle)
maverick (an unbranded range animal (especially a stray calf); belongs to the first person who puts a brand on it)
Holonyms ("calf" is a member of...):
Bos taurus; cattle; cows; kine; oxen (domesticated bovine animals as a group regardless of sex or age)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Young of various large placental mammals e.g. whale or giraffe or elephant or buffalo
Classified under:
Nouns denoting animals
Hypernyms ("calf" is a kind of...):
young mammal (any immature mammal)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The muscular back part of the shank
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("calf" is a kind of...):
skeletal muscle; striated muscle (a muscle that is connected at either or both ends to a bone and so move parts of the skeleton; a muscle that is characterized by transverse stripes)
Meronyms (parts of "calf"):
gastrocnemius; gastrocnemius muscle (the muscle in the back part of the leg that forms the greater part of the calf; responsible for the plantar flexion of the foot)
soleus; soleus muscle (a broad flat muscle in the calf of the leg under the gastrocnemius muscle)
Achilles tendon; tendon of Achilles (a large tendon that runs from the heel to the calf)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "calf"):
mid-calf (the middle of the calf; half way between the knee and ankle)
Holonyms ("calf" is a part of...):
shank (the part of the human leg between the knee and the ankle)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Fine leather from the skin of a calf
Synonyms:
calf; calfskin
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("calf" is a kind of...):
leather (an animal skin made smooth and flexible by removing the hair and then tanning)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "calf"):
box calf (black calfskin leather tanned with chromium salts)
Context examples:
But ever he sucked and chewed on the crushed bones of the caribou calf, the least remnants of which he had gathered up and carried with him.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
It was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The tendon that connects the heel bone to the calf muscles at the back of the lower leg.
(Achilles Tendon, NCI Thesaurus)
At the worst it can only be death; and a man's death is not a calf's, and the dreaded Hereafter may still be open to me.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Then the calf of his leg was badly lacerated and looked as though it had been mangled by a bulldog.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
It usually occurs in males and is characterized by fatigue in the hips, thighs, or calves on exercising, absence of pulsation in the femoral arteries, impotence, and often pallor and coldness of the lower limbs.
(Leriche Syndrome, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)
BVDV is an RNA pestivirus that may contaminate vaccines due to its presence in the fetal calf serum used as a growth supplement in the tissue culture of mammalian cells used in vaccine production.
(MAGE-1 Vaccinia Contaminated with BVDV, NCI Thesaurus)
As twilight fell the old bull stood with lowered head, watching his mates—the cows he had known, the calves he had fathered, the bulls he had mastered—as they shambled on at a rapid pace through the fading light.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
A negotiation was opened through the medium of the ambassador, Sam; and after much pacing to and fro, till, I think, the said Sam's calves must have ached with the exercise, permission was at last, with great difficulty, extorted from the rigorous Sibyl, for the three to wait upon her in a body.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Then they went back to the meadow together, but someone had stolen the calf, and it was gone.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
