From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcallouscal‧lous /ˈkæləs/ adjective DON'T CAREnot caring that other people are suffering We were shocked at the callous disregard for human life. a callous attitude the callous slaughter of seals —callously adverb —callousness noun [uncountable]
Examples from the Corpus
callous• At such times l thought their laughter callous and hated them.• Nor are undertakers alone in careless and callous behaviour.• This occurs not so much because the engineers are callous, but because of a blinkered approach by all parties.• Call me callous, but I see it as Darwinism.• A slightly callous, but very practical attitude.• The press, in its callous, cynical way, was suspicious of the pro-gram at first and called it pure symbolism.• The company showed callous disregard for the safety of their employees.• Five days afterwards, callous Paul used the same bat to play baseball.• the callous slaughter of thousands of civilians• It may have seemed callous to the nurses, but I desperately needed that time to myself.Origin callous (1300-1400) Old French calleux, from Latin callosus, from callus; → CALLUS 