"bitesheep" meaning in English

See bitesheep in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: bitesheeps [plural]
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). Etymology templates: {{compound|en|bite|sheep}} bite + sheep, {{cog|en|sheep-biter}} English sheep-biter Head templates: {{en-noun}} bitesheep (plural bitesheeps)
  1. (obsolete, derogatory, dysphemistic, religious slur) A bishop, particularly a Catholic bishop persecuting Protestants. Tags: derogatory, obsolete, slur Categories (topical): Christianity, People Synonyms: biteshipe Related terms: sheep-biter, sheep-biting

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "bite",
        "3": "sheep"
      },
      "expansion": "bite + sheep",
      "name": "compound"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "sheep-biter"
      },
      "expansion": "English sheep-biter",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "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).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bitesheeps",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {},
      "expansion": "bitesheep (plural bitesheeps)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English dysphemisms",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
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        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English exocentric verb-noun compounds",
          "parents": [
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            "Verb-noun compounds",
            "Exocentric compounds",
            "Verb-object compounds",
            "Compound terms",
            "Terms by etymology"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English religious slurs",
          "parents": [
            "Religious slurs",
            "Offensive terms",
            "Terms by usage"
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Christianity",
          "orig": "en:Christianity",
          "parents": [
            "Abrahamism",
            "Religion",
            "Culture",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "c. 1556, John Foxe, “A Letter of John Careless, answering to the loving Epistle or Letter sent to him before by Master John Philpot”, in Rev. Stephen Reed Cattley, editor, The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe, volume 8, London: R. B. Seeley and W. Burnside, published 1839, page 172:",
          "text": "Wherefore mine advice and most earnest desire is, with all other of your loving friends, that you still keep that order with those bloodthirsty bitesheeps (bishops, I should say) that you have begun. For though in conclusion they will surely have your blood, yet shall they come by it with shame enough, and to their perpetual infamy while the world doth endure.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1578 December 15, A. Dolm, [A Letter]; republished in “Diarium Secundum”, in The First and Second Diaries of the English College, Douay, London: David Nutt, 1878, Februarius 1579, page 149:",
          "text": "Wherfore the bitesheepe and the recorder beinge owtragiously moved agaynst him, contrary to all justice all Law th[e]y condemned him to bee whipped at a Carts tayle and to bee boored through the eare wᵗʰ a hot iron, wᶜʰ was executed in most dispitful and cruellest manner that might bee executed to any Rooge, […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "[1860 April 5, Edward Augustus Freeman, “Saint Thomas of Canterbury and His Biographers”, in The National Review; republished as Historical Essays, London: Macmillan and Co., 1875, page 95:",
          "text": "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?",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A bishop, particularly a Catholic bishop persecuting Protestants."
      ],
      "id": "en-bitesheep-en-noun-L1eJM3Yz",
      "links": [
        [
          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ],
        [
          "religious",
          "religious"
        ],
        [
          "slur",
          "slur"
        ],
        [
          "bishop",
          "bishop"
        ],
        [
          "Catholic",
          "Catholic"
        ],
        [
          "persecuting",
          "persecuting"
        ],
        [
          "Protestant",
          "Protestant"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(obsolete, derogatory, dysphemistic, religious slur) A bishop, particularly a Catholic bishop persecuting Protestants."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "sheep-biter"
        },
        {
          "word": "sheep-biting"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "biteshipe"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "derogatory",
        "obsolete",
        "slur"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "bitesheep"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "bite",
        "3": "sheep"
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      "expansion": "bite + sheep",
      "name": "compound"
    },
    {
      "args": {
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        "2": "sheep-biter"
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      "expansion": "English sheep-biter",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "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).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bitesheeps",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "bitesheep (plural bitesheeps)",
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "sheep-biter"
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    {
      "word": "sheep-biting"
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  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English compound terms",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English derogatory terms",
        "English dysphemisms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English exocentric verb-noun compounds",
        "English lemmas",
        "English nouns",
        "English religious slurs",
        "English terms with obsolete senses",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Christianity",
        "en:People"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "c. 1556, John Foxe, “A Letter of John Careless, answering to the loving Epistle or Letter sent to him before by Master John Philpot”, in Rev. Stephen Reed Cattley, editor, The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe, volume 8, London: R. B. Seeley and W. Burnside, published 1839, page 172:",
          "text": "Wherefore mine advice and most earnest desire is, with all other of your loving friends, that you still keep that order with those bloodthirsty bitesheeps (bishops, I should say) that you have begun. For though in conclusion they will surely have your blood, yet shall they come by it with shame enough, and to their perpetual infamy while the world doth endure.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1578 December 15, A. Dolm, [A Letter]; republished in “Diarium Secundum”, in The First and Second Diaries of the English College, Douay, London: David Nutt, 1878, Februarius 1579, page 149:",
          "text": "Wherfore the bitesheepe and the recorder beinge owtragiously moved agaynst him, contrary to all justice all Law th[e]y condemned him to bee whipped at a Carts tayle and to bee boored through the eare wᵗʰ a hot iron, wᶜʰ was executed in most dispitful and cruellest manner that might bee executed to any Rooge, […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "[1860 April 5, Edward Augustus Freeman, “Saint Thomas of Canterbury and His Biographers”, in The National Review; republished as Historical Essays, London: Macmillan and Co., 1875, page 95:",
          "text": "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?",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A bishop, particularly a Catholic bishop persecuting Protestants."
      ],
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        [
          "religious",
          "religious"
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        ],
        [
          "bishop",
          "bishop"
        ],
        [
          "Catholic",
          "Catholic"
        ],
        [
          "persecuting",
          "persecuting"
        ],
        [
          "Protestant",
          "Protestant"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(obsolete, derogatory, dysphemistic, religious slur) A bishop, particularly a Catholic bishop persecuting Protestants."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "derogatory",
        "obsolete",
        "slur"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "biteshipe"
    }
  ],
  "word": "bitesheep"
}

Download raw JSONL data for bitesheep meaning in English (3.3kB)

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  "msg": "unrecognized sense qualifier: obsolete, derogatory, dysphemistic, religious slur",
  "path": [
    "bitesheep"
  ],
  "section": "English",
  "subsection": "noun",
  "title": "bitesheep",
  "trace": ""
}

{
  "called_from": "form_descriptions/1831",
  "msg": "unrecognized sense qualifier: obsolete, derogatory, dysphemistic, religious slur",
  "path": [
    "bitesheep"
  ],
  "section": "English",
  "subsection": "noun",
  "title": "bitesheep",
  "trace": ""
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English 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.