Contextualizebeta

bitesheep

noun

Etymology

From bite + sheep. Possibly an intentional, satirical corruption of, or pun on, bishop, to imply one who bites the flock he should be protecting (compare English sheep-biter).

  1. inherited from *skēpą✻
  2. inherited from *skāp✻
  3. inherited from sċēp
  4. inherited from schep
  5. compounded as bitesheep — “bite + sheep”

Definitions

  1. A bishop, particularly a Catholic bishop persecuting Protestants.

    • If Thomas is rather fond of calling Geoffrey Riddell Archidiabolus instead of Archidiaconus, was it not the established joke of the Reformation to call a Bishop a Bitesheep, and to turn Cardinal Poole into Carnal Fool?

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for bitesheep. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA