sheep in wolf's clothing
sheep in wolf's clothing noun: someone or something that appears fierce or threatening but is actually harmless or means no harm.
Noun
sheep in wolf's clothing (plural sheep in wolves' clothing)
- Someone or something that appears fierce or threatening but is actually harmless or means no harm.
- The hunter-insects, as we have seen, disguise themselves so as to get near their victims unawares, and the hunted disguise themselves very often in the same way so as to avoid being seen, but sometimes in such a way that if they are seen they may appear to be much more terrible creatures than they...1910, Douglas English, A Book of Nimble Beasts: Bunny Rabbit, Squirrel, Toad, and “Those Sort of People”, London: Eveleigh Nash, page 221
- Synonyms:
- paper tiger
- Antonyms:
- wolf in sheep's clothing
Synonyms of sheep in wolf's clothing
Antonyms
Forms of sheep in wolf's clothing
| plural | sheep in wolves' clothing |
|---|
Origin of sheep in wolf's clothing
Humorous alteration of wolf in sheep's clothing.
Questions about sheep in wolf's clothing
- What does sheep in wolf's clothing mean?
- Sheep in wolf's clothing means someone or something that appears fierce or threatening but is actually harmless or means no harm.
- What part of speech is sheep in wolf's clothing?
- Sheep in wolf's clothing is a noun.
- What is the plural of sheep in wolf's clothing?
- The plural of sheep in wolf's clothing is sheep in wolves' clothing.
Words near sheep in wolf's clothing in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sheep in wolf's clothing (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “sheep in wolf's clothing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sheep_in_wolf%27s_clothing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.