Dictionary

unshepherdly en · ADJ

Etymology

From un- + shepherdly.

Meanings

1. Not shepherdly.
   • No doubt a good deal could be said about the botany of a single blade of grass, but the flock is starving whilst the green pastures are interdicted by the fluent but most unshepherdly botanist. 1883, Joseph Parker, The People's Bible: Discourses upon Holy Scripture, volume XXIII, page 313:
   • [Bo Peep] is the tale of one who is originally a merely unfortunate shepherd but who soon becomes a wilful and deliberate loser of sheep, an unshepherdly shepherd. 1998, David J. A. Clines, “The History of Bo Peep: An Agricultural Employee's Tragedy in Contemporary Literary Perspective”, in On the Way to Postmodernism: Old Testament Essays 1967-1998, volume 2, page 825:
   • The old woman walked behind them waving them on like a shepherd, but cackling in the most unshepherdly manner. 2015, Robert Denethon, Steam Submarine: Into Ultima Thule, page 153:
   • Beginning with the opening command to Ezekiel to prophesy to the shepherds of Israel, the message is a tirade against their unshepherdly oppression of sheep who are now scattered without shepherds. 2009, John W. Olley, Ezekiel: A Commentary based on Iezekiēl in Codex Vaticanus, page 468:

Forms