Modifying Another Word

• so: I wasn't usually so callous in putting flying saucers before family, but this was an exceptional case!

• rather: Making it much more difficult to retire on grounds of ill-health was a rather callous way of dealing with part of the problem.

• particularly: That was a particularly callous act, which left her left hand painful and badly bruised.

• very: This is very callous, but it is the law at the moment.

• even: Yet as the reality of Fenton's condition becomes clearer, he exhibits his own more mercenary, even callous, streak.

Modifies a noun

• disregard: They certainly carry the same tone of callous disregard for innocent lives.

• indifference: Yes, but it is not the silence of callous indifference or helpless weakness.

• thief: Danni's new bed leaves Cheryl feeling bemused, and Ramsay Street is plagued by a callous thief.

• murder: Just a few days ago, Fred Shipman was sentenced to life imprisonment for the callous murder of fifteen patients.

• attitude: In face of this callous attitude of the Shipping Company the Gospel of Christ would sound sheer mockery to my countrymen.

• act: Few can imagine such apparent nonchalance from people who know they are shortly about to die, let alone undertake such a callous act.

Used with adjective complement

• sound: I know it sounds callous - and that there's more to life than work - but we really need the money.

• seem: Libertarianism seems to dissolve to an unworldly atomism, and seems far too callous about real human pain.

• grow: The wounded are getting to be common, and people grow callous.

• become: The symbolism of his death made people aware that their society had become callous, irresponsible and selfish.

• appear: Just occasionally, he could even appear extraordinarily callous.