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sheep

Syllabification: (sheep)
Pronunciation: /SHēp/

Translate sheep | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of sheep

noun (plural same)

  • 1a domesticated ruminant animal with a thick woolly coat and (typically only in the male) curving horns. It is kept in flocks for its wool or meat, and is proverbial for its tendency to follow others in the flock.
    • Ovis aries, family Bovidae, descended from the wild mouflon
  • a wild mammal related to this, such as the argali, bighorn, and urial.
  • 2a person who is too easily influenced or led:the party members had become sheep, and she refused to be taken in
  • 3a person regarded as a protected follower of God.
    [with biblical allusion to Luke 15:6]
  • informal a member of a minister’s congregation.

Phrases

count sheep

count imaginary sheep jumping over a fence one by one in an attempt to put oneself to sleep.

make sheep's eyes at

look at (someone) in a foolishly amorous way.

Derivatives

sheeplike

Pronunciation: /-ˌlīk/

adjective

Origin:

Old English scēp, scǣp, scēap; related to Dutch schaap and German Schaf

sheep in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of sheep in the British & World English dictionary