shepherd
noun
a person who herds, tends, and guards sheep.
shepherd
1 American
[shep-erd]
/ ˈʃɛp ərd /
noun
-
shepherds
plural
verb (used with object)
-
shepherds,
present (3rd person singular)
-
shepherded,
past participle, past
-
shepherding
present participle
-
to tend or guard as a shepherd.
to shepherd the flock.
-
to watch over carefully.
Shepherd
2
American
[shep-erd]
/ ˈʃɛp ərd /
noun
shepherd
1
British
/ ˈʃɛpəd /
noun
-
Female equivalent: shepherdess. a person employed to tend sheep
-
a person, such as a clergyman, who watches over or guides a group of people
verb
-
to guide or watch over in the manner of a shepherd
-
Australian rules football to prevent opponents from tackling (a member of one's own team) by blocking their path
Shepherd
2
British
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
undershepherdnoun
-
shepherdlessadjective
-
shepherdlikeadjective
-
unshepherdedadjective
-
unshepherdingadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
shepherdsimple
-
shepherdssimple
-
have shepherdedperfect
-
has shepherdedperfect
-
am shepherdingprogressive
-
are shepherdingprogressive
-
is shepherdingprogressive
-
have been shepherdingperfect progressive
-
has been shepherdingperfect progressive
Past
-
shepherdedsimple
-
had shepherdedperfect
-
was shepherdingprogressive
-
were shepherdingprogressive
-
had been shepherdingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of shepherd
before 1050; Middle English shepherde, Old English scēphyrde. See sheep, herd 2
Explanation
A shepherd is a person who herds flocks or groups of animals. If you traveled to Tibet, you might see a yak shepherd. Shepherd comes from the Old English sceaphierde: sheepherder. Such a person protects sheep from animals that would attack them, keeps them from wandering, and otherwise takes care of the flock. The word is also a verb that describes care of a group — sheep, other animals, even people. You might shepherd your herd of goats, or shepherd your younger siblings through the transition from elementary to middle school.
Vocabulary lists containing shepherd
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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:
Once on the scene, police have to clear corners and shepherd away fleeing students.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
The demonstration had been called by farmers and shepherd groups.
From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026
A corgi shepherd mix went missing from its Northern California home in July and was found in Illinois.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
Included were proposals to create an enclosure for the animals, stables, three shepherd huts, parking for tractors and a pond.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Boots’s throbbing tail twitched, but he didn’t spring at the shepherd.
From "Tiger, Tiger" by Lynne Reid Banks
Shepherd soon realized he would have to build the system he wanted himself, so he teamed up with club owner and DJ Tom Smith — known as Cosmic Tom — who offered his help.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
And it came together pretty quickly,” Shepherd said of the lineup, which includes Floating Points, Four Tet, Ben UFO, Avalon Emerson, Theo Parrish and more.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
The couple owned a miniature Australian Shepherd named Pip.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
"Having Dr Shepherd there to talk more about his injuries was just really good," Debbie said, adding he had been able "to explain it in more simple terms".
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
In the entryway hung the required portrait of El Jefe, except it wasn’t our old one of Trujillo as a young captain that used to hang next to the Good Shepherd.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
Romanian shepherds also protested in front of the government earlier this year at the end of July.
From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026
For centuries, it was a vast swamp where mosquitoes spread malaria among shepherds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
GPS collars are changing the way animals grazing on Jersey's cliffsides are managed, local shepherds have said.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
The Bidens arrived in Washington with two German shepherds, Champ and Major.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 1, 2026
"And you can be past certain that Lord Stannis will be dispatching his own shepherds to gather in his brother's wayward lambs."
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
Ms. Hazrat points out that the punctuation of William Shakespeare’s plays seem not to have come from the Bard himself but from the editors, copyreaders, typesetters and publishers who shepherded his manuscripts into finished form.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
After Mark Carney settled markets with explicit forward guidance and successfully shepherded Canada through the global financial crisis in 2008, his successor as central bank governor changed course.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
A longtime political operative, Wiles played a key role in Trump's political comeback and shepherded his 2024 campaign to victory.
From BBC ● Mar. 16, 2026
He and Hybe’s Bang Si-Hyuk put Katseye together, as chronicled in a slick 2024 Netflix docuseries, then shepherded the group to a string of hit singles with more than 2 billion Spotify streams between them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 2026
They gave ground before the charges, still orderly but giving, and were shepherded along a glade of Sherwood forest—a wide glade like an estuary of grass with trees on either side.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
But we may be starting a new era, according to Rick Castellano, a vice president at Sallie Mae, who has been shepherding the company’s data collection since 2014.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 2026
Davis championed a new generation of rock at Columbia Records in the late 1960s before shepherding a slate of stars across R&B, hip-hop, country and pop starting with his own fabled Arista Records.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
Wang appeared as usual at last week’s city council meeting, shepherding along discussions on street paving, the upcoming budget and a potential e-bike ordinance.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026
Lord Falconer, who along with Leadbeater is shepherding the bill through Parliament, has said the legislation has "absolutely no hope" of becoming law without a "fundamental change" in the House of Lords' approach.
From BBC ● Jan. 30, 2026
So I concentrated on that, too: learning what I could about the things right in front of me, like lobstering and shepherding and the constellations riding the night sky.
From "Beyond the Bright Sea" by Lauren Wolk
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
