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• lamb
  lamb

  noun

  a young sheep.
• Lamb
  Lamb

  noun

  Charles Elia, 1775–1834, English essayist and critic.

lamb

¹ American  

[lam] / læm /

noun

• lambs
  plural

1. a young sheep.

2. the meat of a young sheep.

3. a person who is gentle, meek, innocent, etc..

   Their little daughter is such a lamb.

4. a person who is easily cheated or outsmarted, especially an inexperienced speculator.

5. the Lamb, Christ.

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verb (used without object)

1. to give birth to a lamb.

Lamb ² American  

[lam] / læm /

noun

1. Charles Elia, 1775–1834, English essayist and critic.

2. Harold A., 1892–1962, U.S. novelist.

3. Mary Ann, 1764–1847, English author who wrote in collaboration with her brother Charles Lamb.

4. William, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, 1779–1848, English statesman: prime minister 1834, 1835–41.

5. Willis E(ugene), Jr., 1913–2008, U.S. physicist: Nobel Prize 1955.

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lamb ¹ British  

/ læm /

noun

1. the young of a sheep

2. the meat of a young sheep

3. a person, esp a child, who is innocent, meek, good, etc

4. a person easily deceived

5. 1. without resistance

   2. innocently

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verb

1. Also: lamb down. (intr) (of a ewe) to give birth

2. (tr; used in the passive) (of a lamb) to be born

3. (intr) (of a shepherd) to tend the ewes and newborn lambs at lambing time

Lamb ² British  

/ læm /

noun

1. Charles, pen name Elia. 1775–1834, English essayist and critic. He collaborated with his sister Mary on Tales from Shakespeare (1807). His other works include Specimens of English Dramatic Poets (1808) and the largely autobiographical essays collected in Essays of Elia (1823; 1833)

2. William. See (2nd Viscount) Melbourne 2

3. Willis Eugene. 1913–2008, US physicist. He detected the small difference in energy between two states of the hydrogen atom ( Lamb shift ). Nobel prize for physics 1955

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Lamb ³ British  

/ læm /

noun

1. a title given to Christ in the New Testament

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lamb Idioms  

1. see hanged for a sheep (as a lamb); in two shakes (of a lamb's tail); like a lamb to the slaughter.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• lamblike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• lambs
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of lamb

First recorded before 900; Middle English, Old English; cognate with Dutch lam, German Lamm, Old Norse, Gothic lamb; akin to Greek élaphos “deer”; see elk

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Explanation

A lamb is a baby sheep. Most female sheep, or ewes, give birth to one or two lambs each spring. Lambs are so cute that they tend to show up in nursery rhymes — as in "Mary had a little lamb." Awwww. When you're petting a newborn sheep, you can call it a lamb, but if you're eating meat that comes from this same animal, it's a mass noun, lamb without the a. The word can be a verb too, as when a ewe lambs, or gives birth, and it's been a common pet name, especially for a young child, since at least the eleventh century: "Okay, time for bed, lamb!"

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lamb Lamb lambs

This finding may reflect the relatively small amounts of Neu5Gc in cow's milk compared with red meats such as beef and lamb.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 18, 2026

Like many on Martha’s Vineyard, a resort island off Cape Cod that’s teeming with ticks this year, I bid a sad farewell to hamburgers, bacon and lamb chops.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026

The food alone made the day’s mileage seem like a bargain: octopus in Galicia, Arzúa-Ulloa cheese from a farmers market or milk-fed lamb that made me forgive every hill in Castilla y León.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026

It was an already-poorly lamb, which Fiona said had not shown typical symptoms - it had been drooling, dropping food from its mouth and its legs were stiff, but not lame.

From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026

A giggly local patted Samir on the back and waved at the innkeep for another round of lamb stew and pear cider.

From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri

Looking ahead, Lamb Weston now expects adjusted earnings of $3.05 to $3.35 a share in its fiscal 2027, up from a prior forecast of $2.95 to $3.25 a share.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

Their effects have been observed through well established phenomena such as the Lamb shift, spontaneous emission, and the Casimir effect.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 3, 2026

The poet was a popular Romantic figure in Victorian Britain, described as "mad, bad and dangerous to know" by one of his lovers, Lady Caroline Lamb.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

Yet Lamb and Well are primarily interested in how a once tiny Hollywood bar on McCadden Place became ground zero for a movement that over the decades has regularly come in and out of popularity.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2026

Eroeh, the timid girl Dany had rescued outside the mud walls of the Lamb Men, set up a brazier.

From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin

Bluetongue is an awful disease affecting cattle and sheep, leading to the death of lambs and calves.

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026

As children, cattle and lambs happily commune with bears, lions and wolves in the foreground, the background depicts William Penn making a treaty with Tamanend, chief of the Lenape Nation, and founding Pennsylvania.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026

In April, a mother spoke of her horror after her son came across a number of dead lambs while out litter picking near the village of Cappagh.

From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2026

That also explains why, and how, his devoted rams, lambs and ewes are able to dedicate themselves to solving his murder.

From Salon ● May 17, 2026

Two lambs with hundreds of wolves lying in wait for them.

From "Night" by Elie Wiesel

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