Word.ws English Dictionary

sheep-biters

sheep-biters is the plural of sheep-biter.

Meaning of sheep-biter

Noun

sheep-biter (plural sheep-biters)

  1. (obsolete) A sheepdog that worries (chases or attacks) sheep.
    • 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.1592, Thomas Nashe, Pierce Penniless
  2. (derogatory, figuratively, obsolete) A contemptible person, especially one who practices petty thefts.
    • His gait, like a sheep-biter, fleering aside1573, Thomas Tusser, Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie

Questions about sheep-biters

What is sheep-biters the plural of?
Sheep-biters is the plural of sheep-biter.

Words near sheep-biters in the dictionary

  1. sheep's heads
  2. sheep's-bit
  3. sheep-bell
  4. sheep-bells
  5. sheep-biter
  6. sheep-biters
  7. sheep-biting
  8. sheep-dip
  9. sheep-dipped
  10. sheep-dipping
  11. sheep-dips

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sheep-biters (page history and authors); sheep-biter (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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