See sheep-biter on Wiktionary
{
"derived": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "sheep-biting"
}
],
"etymology_text": "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).",
"forms": [
{
"form": "sheep-biters",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "sheep-biter (plural sheep-biters)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "bitesheep"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1592, Thomas Nashe, Pierce Penniless:",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A sheepdog that worries (chases or attacks) sheep."
],
"id": "en-sheep-biter-en-noun-x2cKYSyT",
"links": [
[
"sheepdog",
"sheepdog"
],
[
"worries",
"worry"
],
[
"chase",
"chase"
],
[
"attack",
"attack"
],
[
"sheep",
"sheep"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(obsolete) A sheepdog that worries (chases or attacks) sheep."
],
"tags": [
"obsolete"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "4 96",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "8 92",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "5 95",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1573, Thomas Tusser, Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie:",
"text": "His gait, like a sheep-biter, fleering aside",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1604, Thomas Dekker, Thomas Middleton, The Honest Whore, act 2, scene 1:",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, act 2, scene 5:",
"text": "Wouldst thou not be glad to have the niggardly, / rascally sheep-biter come by some notable / shame?",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1669, Sir Roger L'Estrange, Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists, Fable CCCXXX: A Sheep-Biter Hang'd, page 296:",
"text": "There are Political Sheep-biters as well as Pastoral; Betrayers of Publick Trusts as well as of Private; And Humane Curs that are as Wolvish as the Other.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A contemptible person, expecially one who practices petty thefts."
],
"id": "en-sheep-biter-en-noun-LFblw0Z8",
"links": [
[
"derogatory",
"derogatory"
],
[
"contemptible",
"contemptible"
],
[
"petty",
"petty"
],
[
"theft",
"theft"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(obsolete, figurative, derogatory) A contemptible person, expecially one who practices petty thefts."
],
"tags": [
"derogatory",
"figuratively",
"obsolete"
]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "git and Thesaurus:thief"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "sheepbiter"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Laurentius Abstemius"
],
"word": "sheep-biter"
}
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries"
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "sheep-biting"
}
],
"etymology_text": "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).",
"forms": [
{
"form": "sheep-biters",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "sheep-biter (plural sheep-biters)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "bitesheep"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with obsolete senses",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1592, Thomas Nashe, Pierce Penniless:",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A sheepdog that worries (chases or attacks) sheep."
],
"links": [
[
"sheepdog",
"sheepdog"
],
[
"worries",
"worry"
],
[
"chase",
"chase"
],
[
"attack",
"attack"
],
[
"sheep",
"sheep"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(obsolete) A sheepdog that worries (chases or attacks) sheep."
],
"tags": [
"obsolete"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English derogatory terms",
"English terms with obsolete senses",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1573, Thomas Tusser, Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie:",
"text": "His gait, like a sheep-biter, fleering aside",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1604, Thomas Dekker, Thomas Middleton, The Honest Whore, act 2, scene 1:",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, act 2, scene 5:",
"text": "Wouldst thou not be glad to have the niggardly, / rascally sheep-biter come by some notable / shame?",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1669, Sir Roger L'Estrange, Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists, Fable CCCXXX: A Sheep-Biter Hang'd, page 296:",
"text": "There are Political Sheep-biters as well as Pastoral; Betrayers of Publick Trusts as well as of Private; And Humane Curs that are as Wolvish as the Other.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A contemptible person, expecially one who practices petty thefts."
],
"links": [
[
"derogatory",
"derogatory"
],
[
"contemptible",
"contemptible"
],
[
"petty",
"petty"
],
[
"theft",
"theft"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(obsolete, figurative, derogatory) A contemptible person, expecially one who practices petty thefts."
],
"tags": [
"derogatory",
"figuratively",
"obsolete"
]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "git and Thesaurus:thief"
},
{
"word": "sheepbiter"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Laurentius Abstemius"
],
"word": "sheep-biter"
}
Download raw JSONL data for sheep-biter meaning in All languages combined (3.0kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.