sheep-biter
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.59 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "His gait, like a sheep-biter, fleering aside"
- "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."
- "Wouldst thou not be glad to have the niggardly, / rascally sheep-biter come by some notable / shame?"
- "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."
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).
Usage
Inflected Forms
Phrases
Frequently Paired Words
Synonyms
git and Thesaurus:thief