What is "sheep"

Sheep \Sheep\, n. sing. & pl. [OE. shep, scheep, AS. sc?p, sce['a]p; akin to OFries. sk?p, LG. & D. schaap, G. schaf, OHG. sc[=a]f, Skr. ch[=a]ga. [root]295. Cf. Sheepherd.]

1. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of several species of ruminants of the genus Ovis, native of the higher mountains of both hemispheres, but most numerous in Asia.

   Note: The domestic sheep ( Ovis aries) varies much in size, in the length and texture of its wool, the form and size of its horns, the length of its tail, etc. It was domesticated in prehistoric ages, and many distinct breeds have been produced; as the merinos, celebrated for their fine wool; the Cretan sheep, noted for their long horns; the fat-tailed, or Turkish, sheep, remarkable for the size and fatness of the tail, which often has to be supported on trucks; the Southdowns, in which the horns are lacking; and an Asiatic breed which always has four horns.

2. A weak, bashful, silly fellow.
   --Ainsworth.

3. pl. Fig.: The people of God, as being under the government and protection of Christ, the great Shepherd.

   Rocky mountain sheep.(Zo["o]l.) See Bighorn.

   Maned sheep. (Zo["o]l.) See Aoudad.

   Sheep bot (Zo["o]l.), the larva of the sheep botfly. See Estrus.

   Sheep dog (Zo["o]l.), a shepherd dog, or collie.

   Sheep laurel (Bot.), a small North American shrub ( Kalmia angustifolia) with deep rose-colored flowers in corymbs.

   Sheep pest (Bot.), an Australian plant ( Ac[ae]na ovina) related to the burnet. The fruit is covered with barbed spines, by which it adheres to the wool of sheep.

   Sheep run, an extensive tract of country where sheep range and graze.

   Sheep's beard (Bot.), a cichoraceous herb ( Urospermum Dalechampii) of Southern Europe; -- so called from the conspicuous pappus of the achenes.

   Sheep's bit (Bot.), a European herb ( Jasione montana) having much the appearance of scabious.

   Sheep pox (Med.), a contagious disease of sheep, characterixed by the development of vesicles or pocks upon the skin.

   Sheep scabious. (Bot.) Same as Sheep's bit.

   Sheep shears, shears in which the blades form the two ends of a steel bow, by the elasticity of which they open as often as pressed together by the hand in cutting; -- so called because used to cut off the wool of sheep.

   Sheep sorrel. (Bot.), a prerennial herb ( Rumex Acetosella) growing naturally on poor, dry, gravelly soil. Its leaves have a pleasant acid taste like sorrel.

   Sheep's-wool (Zo["o]l.), the highest grade of Florida commercial sponges ( Spongia equina, variety gossypina).

   Sheep tick (Zo["o]l.), a wingless parasitic insect ( Melophagus ovinus) belonging to the Diptera. It fixes its proboscis in the skin of the sheep and sucks the blood, leaving a swelling. Called also sheep pest, and sheep louse.

   Sheep walk, a pasture for sheep; a sheep run.

   Wild sheep. (Zo["o]l.) See Argali, Mouflon, and O["o]rial.

ruminant mammal, Old English sceap, scep, from West Germanic *skæpan (cognates: Old Saxon scap, Old Frisian skep, Middle Low German schap, Middle Dutch scaep, Dutch schaap, Old High German scaf, German Schaf), of unknown origin. Not found in Scandinavian (Danish has faar for "sheep") or Gothic (which uses lamb), and with no known cognates outside Germanic. The more usual Indo-European word for the animal is represented in English by ewe.\n

\nThe plural form was leveled with the singular in Old English, but Old Northumbrian had a plural scipo. Used since Old English as a type of timidity and figuratively of those under the guidance of God. The meaning "stupid, timid person" is attested from 1540s. The image of the wolf in sheep's clothing was in Old English (from Matt. vii:15); that of separating the sheep from the goats is from Matt. xxv:33. To count sheep in a bid to induce sleep is recorded from 1854 but seems not to have been commonly written about until 1870s. It might simply be a type of a tedious activity, but an account of shepherd life from Australia from 1849 ["Sidney's Emigrant's Journal"] describes the night-shepherd ("hut-keeper") taking a count of the sheep regularly at the end of his shift to protect against being answerable for any animals later lost or killed. \n

\nSheep's eyes "loving looks" is attested from 1520s (compare West Frisian skiepseach, Dutch schaapsoog, German Schafsauge). A sheep-biter was "a dog that worries sheep" (1540s); "a mutton-monger" (1590s); and "a whore-monger" (1610s, i.e. one who "chases mutton"); hence Shakespeare's sheep-biting "thieving, sneaky."

n. 1 A woolly ruminant of the genus ''Ovis''. 2 A timid, shy person who is easily led by others. 3 (context chiefly humorous English) (shoop English)

1. n. woolly usually horned ruminant mammal related to the goat

2. a timid defenseless simpleton who is readily preyed upon

3. a docile and vulnerable person who would rather follow than make an independent decision; "his students followed him like sheep"

"Sheep" is a song by English band Pink Floyd, released on the album Animals in 1977. In 1974, it was originally titled "Raving and Drooling".

Sheep is a strategy puzzle video game released for PlayStation, Microsoft Windows and Game Boy Advance. In 2001 it was released for OS X by Feral Interactive.

Sheep is an album by Massachusetts folk musician Zoë Lewis, released in 1998.

Sheep is a horror novel by British author Simon Maginn, originally published in 1994 and reissued in 1997. It is now out of print. The book provided the basis for the 2005 film The Dark, although the plot changed drastically in the conversion from book to film.

Sheep are quadrupedal, ruminant mammals that are typically kept as livestock.

Sheep may also refer to:

• Animals of the genus Ovis, including Domestic Sheep, Bighorn Sheep, Dall Sheep, Argali, and Mouflon
• Animals of the genus Ammotragus (Barbary Sheep), rare or extinct ruminants
• "Sheep" (novel), a novel by British author Simon Maginn
• "Sheep" (song), a song by Pink Floyd on the album Animals
• The Sheep, a character in the novel Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• Sheep (video game), a puzzle video game
• SHEEP (symbolic computation system)
• The Sheep, a fictional character from the novel Animal Farm

SHEEP is one of the earliest interactive symbolic computation systems. It is specialized for computations with tensors, and was designed for the needs of researchers working with general relativity and other theories involving extensive tensor calculus computations.

SHEEP is an freeware package (copyrighted, but free for educational and research use).

The name "SHEEP" is pun on the Lisp Algebraic Manipulator or LAM on which SHEEP is based. The package was written by Inge Frick, using earlier work by Ian Cohen and Ray d'Inverno, who had written ALAM - Atlas LISP Algebraic Manipulation in earlier (designed in 1970). SHEEP was an interactive computer package whereas LAM and ALAM were batch processing languages.

Jan E. Åman wrote an important package in SHEEP to carry out the Cartan-Karlhede algorithm. A more recent version of SHEEP, written by Jim Skea, runs under Cambridge Lisp, which is also used for REDUCE.

The sheep (Ovis aries) is a quadrupedal, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Although the name "sheep" applies to many species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries. Numbering a little over one billion, domestic sheep are also the most numerous species of sheep. An adult female sheep is referred to as a ewe , an intact male as a ram or occasionally a tup, a castrated male as a wether, and a younger sheep as a lamb.

Sheep are most likely descended from the wild mouflon of Europe and Asia. One of the earliest animals to be domesticated for agricultural purposes, sheep are raised for fleece, meat (lamb, hogget or mutton) and milk. A sheep's wool is the most widely used animal fiber, and is usually harvested by shearing. Ovine meat is called lamb when from younger animals and mutton when from older ones. Sheep continue to be important for wool and meat today, and are also occasionally raised for pelts, as dairy animals, or as model organisms for science.

Sheep husbandry is practised throughout the majority of the inhabited world, and has been fundamental to many civilizations. In the modern era, Australia, New Zealand, the southern and central South American nations, and the British Isles are most closely associated with sheep production.

Sheepraising has a large lexicon of unique terms which vary considerably by region and dialect. Use of the word sheep began in Middle English as a derivation of the Old English word scēap; it is both the singular and plural name for the animal. A group of sheep is called a flock, herd or mob. Many other specific terms for the various life stages of sheep exist, generally related to lambing, shearing, and age.

Being a key animal in the history of farming, sheep have a deeply entrenched place in human culture, and find representation in much modern language and symbology. As livestock, sheep are most often associated with pastoral, Arcadian imagery. Sheep figure in many mythologies—such as the Golden Fleece—and major religions, especially the Abrahamic traditions. In both ancient and modern religious ritual, sheep are used as sacrificial animals.

"Sheep" is the second single released by British Indie rock band The Housemartins. It appeared on the album London 0 Hull 4.