Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Embarrassed, as by consciousness of a fault.
- adjective Meek or stupid.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Of or pertaining to sheep.
- Like a sheep; haging the character attributed to sheep or their actions; bashful; timorous to excessl over-modest; stupid; silly.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective obsolete Of or pertaining to sheep.
- adjective Like a sheep; bashful; over-modest; meanly or foolishly diffident; timorous to excess.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Having the characteristics of a
sheep - adjective
shy ,meek ,shameful orembarrassed
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective showing a sense of shame
- adjective like or suggestive of a sheep in docility or stupidity or meekness or timidity
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Even the look the animals adopt when chewing grass has led to the phrase "sheepish".
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2011
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They shared a long smooch before breaking out in sheepish grins.
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Josh bore it all with an expression of sheepish delight.
Harvest Tess Gerritsen 1996
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Josh bore it all with an expression of sheepish delight.
Harvest Tess Gerritsen 1996
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Josh bore it all with an expression of sheepish delight.
Harvest Tess Gerritsen 1996
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Unexpectedly, the new Israeli government that had been discounted by so many commentators because it is not led by a politician with an extensive military experience (some experience Olmert had, like most Israelis, but he is no Sharon), is acting tough with the “international community” and, in particular, the Europeans, whose representatives emerged looking rather sheepish from the round of talks this week-end. “
Put up or shut up Helen 2006
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In a tone that can only be described as sheepish, she added, You can keep the pencil sharpeners.
Archive 2007-08-01 1 Dinosaur 2007
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In a tone that can only be described as sheepish, she added, You can keep the pencil sharpeners.
The $500 Pencil Sharpener (or: A Tale of Two Board Exams) 1 Dinosaur 2007
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Raffles sat down again, lit a Sullivan, and gave what in any other man I should call a sheepish laugh.
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Raffles sat down again, lit a Sullivan, and gave what in any other man I should call a sheepish laugh.
Prolagus commented on the word sheepish
Found in the New York Times crosswords yesterday: "Sheepish". 5 letters. I suggested "ovine" and my American friend K. refused to try it.
I was right :-)
(see vainglorious)
June 20, 2008