"Kaal" can refer to a landscape without trees, a head without hair, a room without furniture, a piece of worn out fabric or a bare wall. Check out this DWOTD for an example of an expression referring to the meaning "bald".
Examples:
– "Wat een kaal, kleurloos landschap, er is geen boom of grassprietje te zien."
("What a bare, colourless landscape, there’s not even one tree or tiny blade of grass.")
– "Als je in het leger gaat, scheren ze je hoofd kaal."
("If you join the army, they’ll shave your head.")
– "Val jij op kale mannen of mannen met een flinke haardos?"
("Do you fancy bald men or men with a head of hair?")
– "Veel kale vrouwen dragen een pruik."
("Many bald women wear wigs.")
– "Ik ben net verhuisd dus mijn nieuwe appartement ziet er nog wat kaal uit."
("I’ve just moved so my new apartment still looks a bit empty.")
– "Ik ga een grote spiegel aan die kale muur hangen."
("I’m going to put up a large mirror on that bare wall.")
– "Je kunt die jas echt niet meer aan, hij is helemaal kaal op de ellebogen."
("You really cannot wear that coat anymore, it’s all bare on the elbows.")
Related words:
– Kaalheid: baldness [noun] [de kaalheid, <no plural>].
– Kalend: getting bald [adjective].
– Haardos: hair of head [noun] [de haardos, de haardossen].
– Pruik: wig [noun] [de pruik, de pruiken].
In English, we have bald-faced lies (blatant lies) and bald tires/tyres (a dangerous situation where automotive tires have no tread left on them and are completely smooth-surfaced). We also use “bald” in the contexts above. 🙂
Or in “English” English bare-faced lies.
And I’m not lying! 🙂
Is haardos a “hair of head” (a single strand of hair) or a full “head of hair”? The former is closer to “kaal” and the latter is the opposite. Here I’m using “strand” to mean a fibril; another meaning is “shore” (the same as the Dutch word “strand”).
Or is this splitting hairs? 😉
@Amy – “Haardos” is a full head of hair 🙂 Mostly used in conjunction with the adjective ‘flinke’. You will also hear: “een flinke dos haar”. I have clarified the post.
Btw, “bald tires” are “gladde banden” in Dutch, however they can never be ‘spiegelglad’, that is only used for slippery surfaces.
DWOTD Glad:
http://www.dwotd.nl/2008/11/517-glad.html
DWOTD Spiegel:
http://www.dwotd.nl/2011/03/895-spiegel.html