black sheep
noun
RELATED CONTENT
RELATED WORDS
Nearby words
- black sea bass,
- black section,
- black selenium,
- black shag,
- black shank,
- black shirt,
- black shirts,
- black site,
- black skimmer,
- black smoker
Origin of black sheep
Examples from the Web for black sheep
Clinton jokes that Barbara Bush refers to him as her “black-sheep son.”
But no matter—— There'd be intellectual conversation for the benefit of black-sheep new chums.
Children of the Bush|Henry LawsonWell, perhaps he was ashamed of me, for I was the black-sheep of the flock.
A Modern Aladdin|Howard Pyle
black sheep
noun
black sheep
by 1822 in figurative sense of "member of some group guilty of offensive conduct and unlike the other members," supposedly because a real black sheep had wool that could not be dyed and was thus worth less. But one black sheep in a flock was considered good luck by shepherds in Sussex, Somerset, Kent, Derbyshire. Baa Baa Black Sheep nursery rhyme's first known publication is in "Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book" (c.1744).
black sheep
A person who is considered a disgrace to a particular group, usually a family: “Uncle Jack, who was imprisoned for forgery, is the black sheep of the family.”
black sheep
The least reputable member of a group; a disgrace. For example, Uncle Fritz was the black sheep of the family; we always thought he emigrated to Argentina to avoid jail. This metaphor is based on the idea that black sheep were less valuable than white ones because it was more difficult to dye their wool different colors. Also, in the 16th century, their color was considered the devil's mark. By the 18th century the term was widely used as it is today, for the odd member of a group.