Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A young sheep, especially one that is not yet weaned.
  • noun The flesh of a young sheep used as meat.
  • noun Lambskin.
  • noun A sweet, mild-mannered person; a dear.
  • noun One who can be duped or cheated especially in financial matters.
  • noun Christianity Jesus.
  • intransitive verb To give birth to a young sheep.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To bring forth young, as sheep.
  • noun A young animal of the sheep kind; a young sheep.
  • noun A person gentle or innocent as a lamb.
  • noun Hence One easily beguiled or fleeced; an inexperienced speculator who is deceived into making losing investments.
  • noun Ironically, a ruffian or bully: as, Kirke's lambs (a troop of British soldiers noted for their atrocities in suppressing Monmouth's rebellion in 1685)

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To bring forth a lamb or lambs, as sheep.
  • noun (Zoöl.) The young of the sheep.
  • noun Any person who is as innocent or gentle as a lamb.
  • noun A simple, unsophisticated person; in the cant of the Stock Exchange, one who ignorantly speculates and is victimized.
  • noun (Script.) the Jesus Christ, in allusion to the paschal lamb.
  • noun (Bot.) an annual plant with small obovate leaves (Valerianella olitoria), often used as a salad; corn salad.
  • noun a carpenter's plane with a deep narrow bit, for making curved grooves.
  • noun [Obs.] Ale mixed with the pulp of roasted apples; -- probably from the resemblance of the pulp of roasted apples to lamb's wool.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A young sheep, of up to one year of age.
  • noun The flesh of a lamb used as food.
  • noun figuratively A person who is meek, docile and easily led.
  • verb intransitive Of a sheep, to give birth.
  • verb transitive or intransitive To assist (sheep) to give birth.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a sweet innocent mild-mannered person (especially a child)
  • verb give birth to a lamb
  • noun young sheep
  • noun English essayist (1775-1834)
  • noun a person easily deceived or cheated (especially in financial matters)
  • noun the flesh of a young domestic sheep eaten as food

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English lamb, from Proto-Germanic *lambaz (compare Dutch lam, German Lamm, Swedish lamm), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁l̥h₁onbʰos (compare Scottish Gaelic lon ("elk"), Ancient Greek έλαφος (élaphos, "red deer")), enlargement of *h₁elh₁én. More at elk.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Little lamb,

    Here I am;

    Come and lick

    My white neck;

    Let me pull

    Your soft wool;

    Let me kiss

    Your soft face:

    Merrily, merrily, we welcome in the year.

    - William Blake, 'Spring'.

    November 3, 2008