separate the sheep from the goats
separate the sheep from the goats verb: to divide the members of a group into those that are superior and those that are inferior.
Verb
separate the sheep from the goats (third-person singular simple present separates the sheep from the goats, present participle separating the sheep from the goats, simple past and past participle separated the sheep from the goats)
Forms of separate the sheep from the goats
| third-person singular present | separates the sheep from the goats |
|---|---|
| present participle | separating the sheep from the goats |
| past participle | separated the sheep from the goats |
| past | separated the sheep from the goats |
Origin of separate the sheep from the goats
From the New Testament discourse of the Sheep and the Goats, particularly Matthew 25:32–33: “And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.”
Questions about separate the sheep from the goats
- What does separate the sheep from the goats mean?
- Separate the sheep from the goats means to divide the members of a group into those that are superior and those that are inferior.
- What part of speech is separate the sheep from the goats?
- Separate the sheep from the goats is a verb.
- What is the past tense of separate the sheep from the goats?
- The past tense of separate the sheep from the goats is separated the sheep from the goats.
Words near separate the sheep from the goats in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: separate the sheep from the goats (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “separate the sheep from the goats.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/separate_the_sheep_from_the_goats. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.