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Sheep   /ʃip/   Listen
noun
Sheep  n.  
1.
(Zool.) Any one of several species of ruminants of the genus Ovis, native of the higher mountains of both hemispheres, but most numerous in Asia. Note: The domestic sheep (Ovis aries) varies much in size, in the length and texture of its wool, the form and size of its horns, the length of its tail, etc. It was domesticated in prehistoric ages, and many distinct breeds have been produced; as the merinos, celebrated for their fine wool; the Cretan sheep, noted for their long horns; the fat-tailed, or Turkish, sheep, remarkable for the size and fatness of the tail, which often has to be supported on trucks; the Southdowns, in which the horns are lacking; and an Asiatic breed which always has four horns.
2.
A weak, bashful, silly fellow.
3.
pl. Fig.: The people of God, as being under the government and protection of Christ, the great Shepherd.
Rocky mountain sheep.(Zool.) See Bighorn.
Maned sheep. (Zool.) See Aoudad.
Sheep bot (Zool.), the larva of the sheep botfly. See Estrus.
Sheep dog (Zool.), a shepherd dog, or collie.
Sheep laurel (Bot.), a small North American shrub (Kalmia angustifolia) with deep rose-colored flowers in corymbs.
Sheep pest (Bot.), an Australian plant (Acaena ovina) related to the burnet. The fruit is covered with barbed spines, by which it adheres to the wool of sheep.
Sheep run, an extensive tract of country where sheep range and graze.
Sheep's beard (Bot.), a cichoraceous herb (Urospermum Dalechampii) of Southern Europe; so called from the conspicuous pappus of the achenes.
Sheep's bit (Bot.), a European herb (Jasione montana) having much the appearance of scabious.
Sheep pox (Med.), a contagious disease of sheep, characterixed by the development of vesicles or pocks upon the skin.
Sheep scabious. (Bot.) Same as Sheep's bit.
Sheep shears, shears in which the blades form the two ends of a steel bow, by the elasticity of which they open as often as pressed together by the hand in cutting; so called because used to cut off the wool of sheep.
Sheep sorrel. (Bot.), a prerennial herb (Rumex Acetosella) growing naturally on poor, dry, gravelly soil. Its leaves have a pleasant acid taste like sorrel.
Sheep's-wool (Zool.), the highest grade of Florida commercial sponges (Spongia equina, variety gossypina).
Sheep tick (Zool.), a wingless parasitic insect (Melophagus ovinus) belonging to the Diptera. It fixes its proboscis in the skin of the sheep and sucks the blood, leaving a swelling. Called also sheep pest, and sheep louse.
Sheep walk, a pasture for sheep; a sheep run.
Wild sheep. (Zool.) See Argali, Mouflon, and Oorial.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Sheep" Quotes from Famous Books



... ingratitude, he uttered the fable of the Fig-Tree, the Olive, the Vine, and the Bramble. When the prophet Nathan would oblige David to pass a sentence of condemnation upon himself in the matter of Uriah, he brought before him the apologue of the rich man who, having many sheep, took away that of the poor man who had but one. When Joash, the king of Israel, would rebuke the vanity of Amaziah, the king of Judah, he referred him to the fable of the Thistle and the Cedar. ...
— The Fables of La Fontaine - A New Edition, With Notes • Jean de La Fontaine

... black thoroughbred Arab, which twitched its ears as the bayonets touched it, and snorted, spurting white foam from his bit, tramping the planks of the bridge with his hoofs, and apparently ready to jump over the railings had his rider let him. "What is this? They're like sheep! Just like sheep! Out of the way!... Let us pass!... Stop there, you devil with the cart! I'll hack you with my saber!" he shouted, actually drawing his saber from its scabbard ...
— War and Peace • Leo Tolstoy

... understand, which they fear and dread—for nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society than freedom. But seest Thou these stones in this parched and barren wilderness? Turn them into bread, and mankind will run after Thee like a flock of sheep, grateful and obedient, though for ever trembling, lest Thou withdraw Thy hand and deny them Thy bread." But Thou wouldst not deprive man of freedom and didst reject the offer, thinking, what is that freedom worth, if obedience is bought with bread? Thou didst reply that man ...
— The Brothers Karamazov • Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... cataract flashing from their summit among broken cliffs, till its waters, reaching the bottom, foamed along with unceasing fury; and sometimes pastoral scenes exhibited their 'green delights' in the narrow vales, smiling amid surrounding horror. There herds and flocks of goats and sheep, browsing under the shade of hanging woods, and the shepherd's little cabin, reared on the margin of a clear stream, presented a sweet picture ...
— The Mysteries of Udolpho • Ann Radcliffe

... drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act, as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty; and precisely ...
— The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Complete - Constitutional Edition • Abraham Lincoln


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