sheep

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a docile and vulnerable person who would rather follow than make an independent decision

   Their students followed like sheep.

2. 2
   noun

   A woolly ruminant of the genus Ovis.

   There is much sad evidence, too, of the spoliation and dereliction of vanished industry: tips, slag-heaps and derelict colliery-screens among which the ubiquitous, nomad mountain sheep graze unconcernedly.

3. 3
   noun

   A religious adherent, a member of a congregation or religious community (compare flock).

   1990, Dave Mustaine, "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due", Megadeth, Rust in Peace. And fools like me, who cross the sea and come to foreign lands / Ask the sheep, for their beliefs do you kill on God's command?

4. 4
   noun

   woolly usually horned ruminant mammal related to the goat

5. 5
   noun

   a timid defenseless simpleton who is readily preyed upon

6. 6
   noun

   A member of the domestic species Ovis aries, the most well-known species of Ovis.

7. 7
   noun

   A timid, shy person who is easily led by others.

8. 8
   noun

   Sheepskin leather.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English schep, schepe, from Anglian Old English sċēp (West Saxon sċēap), from Proto-West Germanic *skāp, from Proto-Germanic *skēpą, of unknown origin. Perhaps from the same Scythian word (compare Ossetian цӕу (cæw, “goat”), Persian چپش (čapiš, “yearling goat”)) which was borrowed into Albanian as cjap, sqap (“buck”) and into Slavic (compare Polish cap). After Kroonen, *skēpą is instead from the root of Proto-Germanic *skabaną (“to scratch”) via Kluge's law. Cognates Cognate with Scots sheep (“sheep”), Yola sheep, zheep (“sheep”), North Frisian schep, schäip, Sjip (“sheep…