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  1. bellwether love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. One that serves as a leader or as a leading indicator of future trends: "The degree to which the paper is censored is a political bellwether” ( Justine De Lacy).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A wether or sheep which leads the flock, usually carrying a bell on its neck.

Wiktionary

  1. n. The leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck.
  2. n. Anything that indicates future trends.
  3. n. A stock or bond that is widely believed to be an indicator of the overall market's condition.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A wether, or sheep, which leads the flock, with a bell on his neck.
  2. n. Contemptuous Hence: A leader.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. sheep that leads the herd often wearing a bell
  2. n. someone who assumes leadership of a movement or activity

Etymologies

  1. From Middle English belwether, belleweder ("a sheep with a bell around its neck to lead a flock"), equivalent to bell +‎ wether. (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English bellewether, wether with a bell hung from its neck, leader of the flock : belle, bell; see bell1 + wether, wether; see wether. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “In their books second chapter, What We Can Learn About Service from Scandinavia, Albrecht and Zemke turned to Sweden, which they referred to as a bellwether country because of a business approach developed there called service management.”

    Simon & Schuster: Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us

  • “If you watched ABC news wednesday evening, they showed my county, Bucks County, which they characterized as a bellwether county.”

    Printing: Bush and Joe, the turncoat, LIeberman

  • “Perhaps Joe and I should be flattered -- after all, one definition of "bellwether" is "a person or thing that takes the lead" (that's from Random House).”

    Candidate Campbell's coyness causes questions..

  • “* And Dems are on defense in bellwether state of Ohio: GOP candidates are aggressively challenging at least six House Dem incumbents -- and are leading in a Senate race by double digits -- in a state that's generally seen as the nation's leading battleground.”

    The Washington Post: The Morning Plum

  • “You can follow the ins and outs of the EU-Turkish accession negotiations for all you are worth but, as we have remarked several times on this blog, the real bellwether is the military.”

    Lightning II strikes

  • “Cambridge: but the monosyllable represented to an Attic ear the bleating of sheep, and a bellwether is better evidence than a bishop or a chancellor.”

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

  • “US Energy Efficiency projects - popular in Voluntary Carbon markets New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme - Crossover Transport Software Solutions for Electric Cars RGGI-Analysis of the first US Auction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions FedEx is sometimes referred to as a bellwether for the U.S. economy.”

    Cleantech Blog

  • “The first of 175 consolidated California cases went to trial last summer, a suit the judge called a "bellwether.”

    The Wall Street Journal: All-Terrain Victories

  • “Virginia likes to be known as the bellwether of how elections will go in the rest of the United States, and perhaps no race fits that category more than the one Democratic Rep. Rick Boucher is fighting.”

    The Washington Post: This year's Florida? It's Rick Boucher in Virginia

  • “Credit Suisse analyst Kun Lung Wu Monday said the risk of recession in Asian bellwether Singapore has "increased significantly.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Asian Markets Reel After U.S. Downgrade

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synonyms (3)

Words with the same meaning

  1. sign
  1. indicator
  1. gauge

hypernyms (2)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. wether
  1. leader

same context (32)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. shakey
  2. bootstrapping
  3. chopped-up
  4. shit-eating
  5. loathesome
  6. underdog
  1. mongoose
  2. unsaleable
  3. cannibalistic
  4. gui
  5. ulcerated
  6. wormy
  1. green-tinted
  2. two-faced
  3. cassowary
  4. leaf-mould
  5. hepatotoxicity
  6. pharmacetical
  1. unaccomplished
  2. whirligig
  3. high-beta
  4. safe/arm
  5. blood-oxygen
  6. tidbit
  1. ex-governess
  2. acid­base
  3. blue-chip
  4. dividend-paying
  5. torquemeter
  6. under-arm
  1. 111-112
  2. interest-sensitive

reverse dictionary (2)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. bellwether
  1. to bear the bell

tags (3)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. animals
  1. sheep
  1. eee

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  • jinglebelljosie A contemptuous term for a ring-leader whose lead is followed in an unquestioning, sheep-lie fashion. ---Foyle's Philavery Mar 4, 2009

  • brtom "And by that way wend the herds innumerable of bellwethers and flushed ewes and shearling rams and lambs and ..."
    Joyce, Ulysses, 12 Jan 13, 2007

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‘bellwether’ has been looked up 3312 times, loved by 17 people, added to 79 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 18.