Log in or Sign up
  1. black sheep love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A sheep with black fleece.
  2. n. A member of a family or other group who is considered undesirable or disreputable.

Wiktionary

  1. n. Used other than as an idiom: see black,‎ sheep.
  2. n. idiomatic a nonconformist; an unusual or unconventional person
  3. n. idiomatic a disliked person; one who is disfavored

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. one in a family or company who is unlike the rest, and makes trouble.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a reckless and unprincipled reprobate
  2. n. sheep with a black coat

Examples

  • “The eldest brother the Marquis of Haverston, the second an earl, the third the black sheep of the family, and Anthony a close second.”

    Tender Rebel

  • “In a nearby field black sheep grazed among black-eyed Susans.”

    Roc and a Hard Place

  • “One day a swivel-chair pilot, an equip - ment officer, made the amazing discovery that there was a black sheep in his flock.”

    The HurricaneStory

  • “His handsome face bloated into the plain round pock-marked face of the bailiff’s black sheep son.”

    Simon & Schuster: Songs of Love & Death

  • “Euphrates, from the mouth to the sources of those rivers, was reduced to his obedience: he entered Edessa; and the Turkmans of the black sheep were chastised for the sacrilegious pillage of a caravan of Mecca.”

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

  • “I never heard him utter an irrevocable judgment, even when the black sheep of the estate, a foul-mouthed farmer of whose malpractices he had had to complain to the landlord, had accused him of some dishonest trick or other.”

    Maigret's Memoirs

  • “His father was the black sheep of a prosperous but unforgiving Irish family, his mother was the daughter of the German butcher in Winton; when she insisted on marrying Luke senior, she also was disowned.”

    The Thorn Birds

  • “Those who saw him told me he looked pleased; but he sent me no message showing a change of viewpoint, and the gulf between the family and its black sheep remained unbridged.”

    The Story of a Pioneer

Log in or sign up to add your own related words.

synonyms (1)

Words with the same meaning

  1. bad apple

hypernyms (3)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. miscreant
  1. reprobate
  1. sheep

reverse dictionary (14)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. mountain-sheep
  2. Karakul
  1. Suffolk
  2. Exmoor
  1. groenendael
  2. broadtail
  1. Richfood
  2. black sheep
  1. Dall sheep
  2. karakul
  1. Border collie
  2. caracul
  1. Shropshire
  2. head-scab

tags (2)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. The Wørd
  1. black

Log in or sign up to add your own tag.

Wordmap

(beta)

Word visualization

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘black sheep’.

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • cosmican Someone different from other members of the family (not necessarily with a negative sense) Nov 19, 2007

Tweets

Looking for tweets for black sheep.

‘black sheep’ has been looked up 1553 times, added to 14 lists, commented on 1 time, and is not a valid Scrabble word.