subs. (colloquial).—1. SHEEP LIKE PIGEON (q.v.) is commonly generic for timidity and bashfulness. Thus, as subs. = a simpleton; SHEEP-FACED (or SHEEPISH) = bashful (B. E. and GROSE); SHEEP’S-HEAD = a blockhead (B. E., DYCHE, and GROSE); SHEEP-HEADED = stupid; SHEEP’S HEART = a coward; SHEEP-HEARTED = cowardly; ‘LIKE A SHEEP’S HEAD, ALL JAW’ = ‘said of a talkative person’ (GROSE); OLD SHEEPGUTS = a term of contempt.
d. 1556. UDALL, The Apophthegmes of Erasmus, 122. Those persones, who were sely poore soules … wer euen then … by a common prouerbe: called SHEPES HEADS, or SHEPE.
1563. FOX, Acts and Monuments, iv. 51 [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 542]. Orrmin’s old SHEEPISH now gets the new sense of stultus.
1592. NASHE, Pierce Penilesse, His Supplication to the Divell, 45. I haue read ouer thy SHEEPISH discourse … and entreated my patience to bee good to thee whilst I read it.
1593. SHAKESPEARE, Comedy of Errors, iv. 1.
| Thou peevish SHEEP. | |
| Ibid. (1595), Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 1. | |
| Speed. Twenty to one, then, he is slipp’d already, | |
| And I have play’d the SHEEP in losing him. | |
| Ibid. | |
| Pro. A silly answer, and fitting well a SHEEP. |
1605. CHAPMAN, All Fools, ii.
| Ah, errant SHEEP’S HEAD, hast thou lived thus long, | |
| And darest not look a woman in the face? |
1630. TAYLOR (‘The Water Poet’), Workes, ‘A Discovery by Sea.’ Simple SHEEPEHEADED fooles.
1632. MASSINGER, The Maid of Honour, ii. 2.
| Page. You, sirrah SHEEP’S-HEAD, | |
| With a face cut on a cat-stick, do you hear? | |
| You, yeoman fewterer. |
1693. LOCKE, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, 70. A SHEEPISH or conceited creature.
1749. SMOLLETT, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 216. The SHEEPISH acquiescence of a man who stood in awe of an ecclesiastical rap on the knuckles.
1768. STERNE, A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, xi. I never felt the pain of a SHEEPISH inferiority so miserably in my life.
1773. GOLDSMITH, She Stoops to Conquer, i. 1. Reserved and SHEEPISH; that’s much against him.
1775. SHERIDAN, The Rivals, iv. 1. Acres. A vile, SHEEP-HEARTED blockhead! If I hadn’t the valour of St. George, and the Dragon to boot—
1818. SCOTT, Rob Roy, ix. Why, thou SHEEP’S HEART, how do ye ken but we may can pick up some speerings of your valise.
1835. R. H. DANA, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, 155 (July 18). They’ve got a man for mate of that ship, and not a bloody SHEEP.
1863. C. READE, Hard Cash, I. 137. He wore a calm front of conscious rectitude; under which peeped SHEEP-FACED misgivings as to the result of this advance; for, like all true lovers, he was half impudence, half timidity; and both on the grand scale.
1878. JOHN PAYNE, tr. Poems of Villon, 87.
| My poor orphans, all the three, | |
| Are grown in age, and wit likewise, | |
| No SHEEPSHEADS are they, I can see. |
1900. R. H. SAVAGE, Brought to Bay, vi. California mine manipulators going over to London to shear those fat-witted SHEEP, the British investors.
2. (Aberdeen University).—See quot.
1865. G. MACDONALD, Alec Forbes of Howglen, II. 5. At length, however, a certain semi (second-classman, or more popularly SHEEP) stood up to give his opinion on some subject in dispute.
PHRASES AND PROVERBS.—TO WASH SHEEP WITH SCALDING WATER = to act absurdly; TO LOSE A SHEEP (erroneously SHIP) FOR A HALF-PENNY WORTH OF TAR = to go niggardly about a business; ‘as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.’
