sheep definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (35)

American Heritage Dictionary (4)

noun Any of various usually horned ruminant mammals of the genus Ovis in the family Bovidae, especially the domesticated species O. aries, raised in many breeds for wool, edible flesh, or skin.
noun Leather made from the skin of one of these animals.
noun A person regarded as timid, weak, or submissive.

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Century Dictionary (27)

A ruminant mammal of the family Bovidæ, subfamily Orinæ, and genus Ovis; specifically, Ovis aries, domesticated in many varieties, and one of the animals most useful to man. The male is a ram, the female a ewe, and the young a lamb; the fresh of the adult is mutton; of the young, lamb; the coat or fleece is wool, a principal material of warm clothing; the prepared hide is sheepskin, used for many purposes; the entrails furnish sausage-cases, and are also dried and twisted into strings for musical instruments (“catgut”); the prepared fat makes tallow or suet; and the twisted horns of the ram are used in the manufacture of various utensils. The milk of the ewe is thicker than that of the cow, yielding a relatively greater quantity of batter and cheese. The sheep is one of the most harmless and timid of animals. The artificial breeds of O. aries are numerons; it is not known from what wild stock or stocks they are descended. The mouflon is a probable ancestor of some at least of the domestic varieties, especially those with short tail and crescentic horns. The principal English varieties of the sheep are the large Leicester, the Cotswold, the Southdown, the Cheviot, and the black-faced breeds. The Leicester comes early to maturity, attains a large size, has a fine full form, and carries more mutton, though not of finest quality, in the same apparent dimensions than any other; the wool is not so long as in some other breeds, but is considerably finer. The Cotswolds have been improved by crossing with Leicesters; their wool is fine, and their mutton fine-grained and full-sized. Southdowns have short, close, and curled wool, and their mutton is highly valued for its flavor; they attain a large size. All these require a good climate and rich pasture. The Cheviot is much hardier, and is well adapted for the green, grassy hills of Highland districts; the wool is short, thick, and fine. The Cheviot possesses good fatteuing qualities, and yields excellent mutton. The black-faced is hardiest of all, and adapted for wild heathery hills and moors; its wool is long and coarse, but its mutton is the very finest. The Welsh resembles the black-faced, but is less hardy; its mutton is delicious, but its fleece weighs only about 2 pounds. The foreign breeds of sheep are numerous, some of the more remarkable being the broad-tailed sheep, common in Asia and Egypt, and remarkable for its large heavy tail; the Iceland sheep, having three, four, or five horns; the fat-rumped sheep of Tatary, with an accumulation of fat on the rump, which, falling down in two great masses behind, often entirely conceals the tail; the Astrakhan or Bucharian sheep, with the wool twisted in spiral curls, and of very fine quality; the Wallachian or Cretan sheep, with very large, long, and spiral horns, those of the male being upright, and those of the female at right angles with the head. All the wild species of Ovis have the hook-name sheep, and also particular designations. (See argali, bighorn, mouflon, musimon.) The only indigenous form in the New World is the Rocky Mountain sheep, or bighorn, O. montana. Certain Ovin æ of modern genera detached from Ovis are called sheep with a qualifying term, as the aoudad, or Barbary sheep. See cuts under aoudad, bighorn, merino, Ovis, quadricorn, and Ruminantia. In that Lond ben Trees that beren Wolle, as thoghe it were of Scheep. Mandeville, Travels, p. 268.
Leather made from sheepskin, especially split leather used in bookbinding.
In contempt, a silly fellow.

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But as I did so, the cow and the sheep were there before me. — Personal Experiences of S O Susag
Who stops in Australia to think whether the land which he wants for his sheep is the hunting ground of native people or not? — Life of John Coleridge Patteson
About half of these passed through only one other language before reaching English; the remainder passed through as many as five or six. — VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol VII No 4
Cadmann's heart thundered as he remembered the sheer speed of the boats, their near-hydrofoil design that kept a minimum of prow in the water, minimizing drag. — The Legacy of Heorot
"ee": sheep is often pronounced as "ship" and week as "wick." — VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XIX No 4

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goat · cattle · pig · lamb · ox · animal · rabbit · wolf · chicken · cat · flock · bull

Etymologies (3)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English, from Old English scēap.

Century Dictionary (2)

from Middle English sheep, shep, scheep, schepe, sceap, ssep, sep (plural sheep, scheep), from Anglo-Saxon sceáp, scēp (plural sceá p, scēp) = Old Saxon scāp = OFries. skēp, schēp = Dutch schaap = Middle Low German schāp, Low German schaap = Old High German scāf, Middle High German G. schaf, sheep; root unknown. Not found in Gothic (Moesogothic), where lamb (= English lamb) is used, nor in Scandinavian, where Icelandic fær = Swedish får = Danish faar, sheep, appears (see Faroese).
Middle English, also scheep, schepe, from Anglo-Saxon *scēpe, one who takes charge of sheep, from sceáp, sheep: see sheep, Cf. herd, from herd.

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