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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

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

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

Now, it’s known for incredible lamb, cheese, wine and fruit inspired by the natural, high-quality, hard-working traditions of generations of Māori.

From Salon ● Jul. 26, 2026

For something even more dramatic, La Tienda’s double-frenched racks of lamb make a hell of a centerpiece.

From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2026

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s recent summit came in like a lion and went out like a lamb.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

Williams, whose main course options include Porth Eirias dressed crab and Welsh lamb, said he would never exile the scone.

From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026

I popped down out of sight and I heard William saying, "Your roast lamb, madam. And which vegetable would you like? Peas or carrots?"

From "The Witches" by Roald Dahl

But that wasn’t the result of sudden delistings sparked by huge drops; rather, the company determined that the ETFs weren’t gaining sufficient traction with investors, according to Lamb.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026

The gain offset falling international sales as Lamb Weston faced ongoing disruptions in the Middle East and continued input-cost inflation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

Lamb Weston logged higher sales in its fiscal fourth quarter, as volume growth in North America helped offset continued cost inflation and geopolitical volatility, which weighed on international sales.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

For most of the campaign he seemed destined to finish as the league's top scorer, only for Manchester City's Teddie Lamb to pip him in the final couple of games.

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026

As Miss Lamb had ‘enjoyed’ the story, this speech was not exactly grateful or complimentary.

From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott

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

Hundreds of knitted teddy bears, lambs, dogs and rabbits have been placed in Hartford, Cheshire, for children, with just a gift tag signed from an elusive "Granny H".

From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026

The paintings featured include scenes of unassuming houses visited by otherworldly guests, dead-eyed office workers, gravity-defying displays and lambs being led to the slaughter.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 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

My job was soon relegated to working in the pens, moving the sheep from one to the next to let them learn to recognize their lambs before it got more crowded.

From This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen

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