lamb

¹

[lam]

noun

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.

verb (used without object)

1. to give birth to a lamb.

Lamb

²

[lam]

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.

lamb

¹

/ 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

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

/ 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

Lamb

³

/ læm /

noun

1. a title given to Christ in the New Testament

Other Word Forms

• lamblike adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of lamb¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of lamb¹

Old English lamb, from Germanic; compare German Lamm, Old High German and Old Norse lamb

Idioms and Phrases

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

Example Sentences

Yet it resonates, albeit vague and unexplored, with biblical references to goat offerings and images of Jesus as a sacrificial lamb and the movie’s visual allusions to the goat-headed occult idol Baphomet.

From Los Angeles Times

In Homer’s “The Odyssey,” for instance, a bridge to the spirit world is reached only after a complex series of sacrifices and offerings — a potent mix of sweet wine and the blood of a lamb.

From Los Angeles Times

I love lamb and Golden Fleece has a selection, including lamb chops and a lamb shank on their grill menu, as well as ground lamb kebabs, gyros, and souvlaki.

From Salon

"Usually, if an animal loses a calf or a foal or a lamb, they will stay with the dead animal," he said.

From BBC

“It was such a revelation to me as a kid, but later I was more interested in who the person was that would agree to be the sacrificial lamb,” Bradford said.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• fish