SHEEP

Definitions

1. 1. Any one of several species of ruminants of the genus Ovis, native of the higher mountains of both hemispheres, but most numerous in Asia.
2. 2. A weak, bashful, silly fellow. Ainsworth.
3. 3. Fig.: The people of God, as being under the government and protection of Christ, the great Shepherd. Rocky mountain sheep.(Zoöl.) See Bighorn. -- Maned sheep. (Zoöl.) See Aoudad. -- Sheep bot (Zoöl.), the larva of the sheep botfly. See Estrus. -- Sheep dog (Zoöl.), a shepherd dog, or collie. -- Sheep laurel (Bot.), a small North American shrub (Kalmia angustifolia) with deep rose-colored flowers in corymbs. -- Sheep pest (Bot.), an Australian plant (Acæna ovina) related to the burnet. The fruit is covered with barbed spines, by which it adheres to the wool of sheep. -- Sheep run, an extensive tract of country where sheep range and graze. -- Sheep's beard (Bot.), a cichoraceous herb (Urospermum Dalechampii) of Southern Europe; -- so called from the conspicuous pappus of the achenes. -- Sheep's bit (Bot.), a European herb (Jasione montana) having much the appearance of scabious. -- Sheep pox (Med.), a contagious disease of sheep, characterixed by the development of vesicles or pocks upon the skin. -- Sheep scabious. (Bot.) Same as Sheep's bit. -- Sheep shears, shears in which the blades form the two ends of a steel bow, by the elasticity of which they open as often as pressed together by the hand in cutting; -- so called because used to cut off the wool of sheep. -- Sheep sorrel. (Bot.), a prerennial herb (Rumex Acetosella) growing naturally on poor, dry, gravelly soil. Its leaves have a pleasant acid taste like sorrel. -- Sheep's-wool (Zoöl.), the highest grade of Florida commercial sponges (Spongia equina, variety gossypina). -- Sheep tick (Zoöl.), a wingless parasitic insect (Melophagus ovinus) belonging to the Diptera. It fixes its proboscis in the skin of the sheep and sucks the blood, leaving a swelling. Called also sheep pest, and sheep louse. -- Sheep walk, a pasture for sheep; a sheep run. -- Wild sheep. (Zoöl.) See Argali, Mouflon, and Oörial.