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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Bellwether

Bellwether \Bell"weth`er\, n.

  1. A wether, or sheep, which leads the flock, with a bell on his neck.

  2. Hence: A leader. [Contemptuous]
    --Swift.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
bellwether

mid-14c. (late 13c. in Anglo-Latin; late 12c. as a surname), from bell (n.) + wether; the lead sheep (on whose neck a bell was hung) of a domesticated flock. Figurative sense of "chief, leader" is from mid-14c.

Wiktionary
bellwether

n. 1 The leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck. 2 Anything that indicates future trends. 3 A stock or bond that is widely believed to be an indicator of the overall market condition.

WordNet
bellwether
  1. n. someone who assumes leadership of a movement or activity

  2. sheep that leads the herd often wearing a bell

Wikipedia
Bellwether

A bellwether is one that leads or indicates trends; a trendsetter.

The term is derived from the Middle English bellewether and refers to the practice of placing a bell around the neck of a castrated ram (a wether) leading his flock of sheep. The movements of the flock could be noted by hearing the bell before the flock was in sight.

Bellwether (novel)

Bellwether, is a 1996 science fiction novel by Connie Willis. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1997.

Usage examples of "bellwether".

Flip raising her hand and getting an assistant, Flip spearheading the antismoking campaign that had made me suggest the paddock to Shirl, who had told us about the bellwether.

History of science and fads mix with a liberal dose of chaos theory and much too much information about sheep to make Bellwether more of an intellectual exercise than an emotional one.

There were a couple of bars in Bellwether Street close to the narrow entry that led to the Woolpack Hotel.

It was mainly made up of Liberal Party bellwethers, trying to test the shifting winds at an event they could attend without having to openly thumb their nose at New Kiev.

On the underside of the storm, ugly, bulging mammatus pouches appeared: bellwethers for heavy rainfall, hail, windbursts, and tornadoes.

The explosion damaged the navigational guidance system and forced Frank Bellwether, its skipper, to try an eyeball insertion, a seat-of-the-pants reentry.

It had been the most traumatic incident of the age of space exploration, far more painful than the Challenger loss, because Bellwether and his crew were able to communicate for several days afterward, until their air supply ran out.

She was the daughter of Frank Bellwether, commander of the Ranger on its fateful first voyage.

Andrea Bellwether had relaxed somewhat after those early terrifying minutes.

The special guests at the White House dinner had been Andrea Bellwether and Tory Clark.

Feinberg remarked later that history would remember the technique as the Bellwether Maneuver.

Garric turned the bellwether, a grizzled ram with wooden clackers around his neck.

Willis weaves into Bellwether a conceit with a bit more depth and even a non-trivial lesson or two hidden within.

Her ear for the vocabulary and vapidity of everything trendy makes Bellwether a delight for anyone who chafes under the tyranny of style, and if it ties up a trifle too neatly in the end, well, so what?

The sky was untroubled except for the bellwether clouds that reached high smoky fingers from the west.