Sheep
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
sheep
n 1: woolly usually horned ruminant mammal related to the goat
2: a timid defenseless simpleton who is readily preyed upon
3: a docile and vulnerable person who would rather follow than
make an independent decision; "his students followed him like
sheep"
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Sheep \Sheep\, n. sing. & pl. [OE. shep, scheep, AS. sc?p,
sce['a]p; akin to OFries. sk?p, LG. & D. schaap, G. schaf,
OHG. sc[=a]f, Skr. ch[=a]ga. [root]295. Cf. {Sheepherd}.]
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.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
2. A weak, bashful, silly fellow. --Ainsworth.
[1913 Webster]
3. pl. Fig.: The people of God, as being under the government
and protection of Christ, the great Shepherd.
[1913 Webster]
{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}.
[1913 Webster]
from
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
Sheep
are of different varieties. Probably the flocks of Abraham and
Isaac were of the wild species found still in the mountain
regions of Persia and Kurdistan. After the Exodus, and as a
result of intercourse with surrounding nations, other species
were no doubt introduced into the herds of the people of Israel.
They are frequently mentioned in Scripture. The care of a
shepherd over his flock is referred to as illustrating God's
care over his people (Ps. 23:1, 2; 74:1; 77:20; Isa. 40:11;
53:6; John 10:1-5, 7-16).
"The sheep of Palestine are longer in the head than ours, and
have tails from 5 inches broad at the narrowest part to 15
inches at the widest, the weight being in proportion, and
ranging generally from 10 to 14 lbs., but sometimes extending to
30 lbs. The tails are indeed huge masses of fat" (Geikie's Holy
Land, etc.). The tail was no doubt the "rump" so frequently
referred to in the Levitical sacrifices (Ex. 29:22; Lev. 3:9;
7:3; 9:19). Sheep-shearing was generally an occasion of great
festivity (Gen. 31:19; 38:12, 13; 1 Sam. 25:4-8, 36; 2 Sam.
13:23-28).
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
95 Moby Thesaurus words for "sheep":
Babbitt, Columbia, Karakul, Kerry Hill, Lincoln, Merino,
Middle American, Panama, Philistine, Romeldale, Romney, Suffolk,
Wensleydale, anal character, ape, assembly, bellwether, bourgeois,
brethren, burgher, churchgoers, class, compulsive character,
conformer, conformist, congregation, conventionalist, copier,
copycat, copyist, counterfeiter, cuckoo, dissembler, dissimulator,
echo, echoer, echoist, ewe, ewe lamb, faker, flock, fold, forger,
formalist, hypocrite, imitator, impersonator, impostor, jumbuck,
laity, lamb, lambkin, laymen, methodologist, middle-class type,
mime, mimer, mimic, mimicker, minyan, mocker, mockingbird,
model child, monkey, mutton, nonclerics, nonordained persons,
organization man, parish, parishioners, parrot, pedant, people,
perfectionist, phony, plagiarist, plastic person, poll-parrot,
polly, polly-parrot, poseur, precisian, precisianist, ram,
seculars, simulator, society, square, teenybopper, teg, trimmer,
tup, wether, yeanling, yes-man
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