sheep-biter en · NOUN
Etymology
sheep + biter (“one who bites”). Figurative term possibly influenced by the fable "De cane oves domini sui occidente, a quo suspensus est" in Hecatomythium by Laurentius Abstemius (later included with Aesop's Fables as "A Sheep-Biter Hang'd" — see quotations).
Meanings
-
(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:
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(derogatory, figuratively, obsolete) A contemptible person, especially one who practices petty thefts.
A poor man has but one ewe, and this grandee sheep-biter leaves whole flocks of fat wethers, whom he may knock down, to deuour this.
1604, Thomas Dekker, Thomas Middleton, The Honest Whore, act 2, scene 1:His gait, like a sheep-biter, fleering aside
1573, Thomas Tusser, Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie:There are Political Sheep-biters as well as Pastoral; Betrayers of Publick Trusts as well as of Private; And Humane Curs that are as Wolvish as the Other.
1669, Sir Roger L'Estrange, Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists, Fable CCCXXX: A Sheep-Biter Hang'd, page 296:Wouldst thou not be glad to have the niggardly, / rascally sheep-biter come by some notable / shame?
c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, act 2, scene 5:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| sheepbiter | alternative | lexicographic | |
| sheep-biters | Number=Plur | lexicographic |