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sheep-biter

noun

Etymology

sheep + biter (“one who bites”). Figurative term possibly influenced by the fable "De cane oves domini sui occidente, a quo suspensus est" in Hecatomythium by Laurentius Abstemius (later included with Aesop's Fables as "A Sheep-Biter Hang'd" — see quotations).

Definitions

  1. A sheepdog that worries (chases or attacks) sheep.

    • What curre will not bawle, & be ready to flye on a mans face, when he is set on by his master, who, if hee bee not by to encourage him, he casts his taile betwixt his legges, & steales away like a sheepe byter.

  2. A contemptible person, especially one who practices petty thefts.

    • His gait, like a sheep-biter, fleering aside
    • A poor man has but one ewe, and this grandee sheep-biter leaves whole flocks of fat wethers, whom he may knock down, to deuour this.
    • Wouldst thou not be glad to have the niggardly, / rascally sheep-biter come by some notable / shame?

The neighborhood

Derived

sheep-biting

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for sheep-biter. 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