sheep-biter
nounEtymology 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).
1
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:
2
Derogatory, Figuratively, Obsolete A contemptible person, especially one who practices petty thefts.
- His gait, like a sheep-biter, fleering aside1573, Thomas Tusser, Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie:
- 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:
2 more examples
- 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:
- 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:
- Synonyms
- git and Thesaurus:thief
- Derived terms
- sheep-biting
- Related terms
- bitesheep