merino
Americannoun
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merinos
plural
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(often initial capital letter) one of a breed of sheep, raised originally in Spain, valued for their fine wool.
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wool from such sheep.
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a yarn or fabric made from this wool.
adjective
noun
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a breed of sheep, originating in Spain, bred for their fleece
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the long fine wool of this sheep
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the yarn made from this wool, often mixed with cotton
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informal
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history a free settler rather than a convict
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an affluent and socially prominent person
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( as modifier )
a pure merino cricketer
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adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of merino
1775–85; < Spanish < Arabic ( banū ) marīn a Berber tribe known for raising this breed
Vocabulary lists containing merino
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"The blue face Leicester fleece, which is our closest to the merino, that will go into knitwear like men's suits."
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
If you haven’t heard of Allbirds, picture the first time you learned that merino wool is surprisingly soft and breathable for socks.
From Barron's ● Apr. 16, 2026
Its Wool Runner shoe, made from merino wool, helped draw attention on social media.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 31, 2026
So he decided to rebuild his shorts and underwear drawer, swapping out garments made from polyester-based fabrics to ones crafted from materials such as organic cotton and merino wool.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 16, 2026
The pastures, a lush new green, were dotted with merino sheep and fat milk cows.
From "Lyddie" by Katherine Paterson
“The lambs appear to display the body wrinkle that was common in merinos in the middle of last century, a feature originally selected to maximise skin surface area and wool yields.”
From The Guardian ● Mar. 18, 2019
It races past nickel, lead and gold mines, flocks of fleecy merinos, smelters, slag heaps, ports and forests.
From Time Magazine Archive
He had entire charge of a flock of 1,700 merinos.
From Two Years in Oregon by Wallis Nash
The Rambouillets she purchased had kept fat where the merinos had lost weight on the same feed.
From The Fighting Shepherdess by Caroline Lockhart
The merinos are considered very voracious, and not very prolific; they yield but little milk, and are very subject to cutaneous diseases.
From The Romance of Industry and Invention by Robert Cochrane
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
