LAMB

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Lamb mean? 

• LAMB (noun)
  The noun LAMB has 5 senses:

1. young sheep

2. English essayist (1775-1834)

3. a person easily deceived or cheated (especially in financial matters)

4. a sweet innocent mild-mannered person (especially a child)

5. the flesh of a young domestic sheep eaten as food

  Familiarity information: LAMB used as a noun is common.

• LAMB (verb)
  The verb LAMB has 1 sense:

1. give birth to a lamb

  Familiarity information: LAMB used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LAMB (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Young sheep

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("lamb" is a kind of...):

young mammal (any immature mammal)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lamb"):

lambkin (a very young lamb)

baa-lamb (child's word for a sheep or lamb)

hog; hogg; hogget (a sheep up to the age of one year; one yet to be sheared)

teg (two-year-old sheep)

Persian lamb (a karakul lamb)

Holonyms ("lamb" is a member of...):

genus Ovis; Ovis (sheep)

Derivation:

lamb (give birth to a lamb)

Sense 2

Meaning:

English essayist (1775-1834)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Charles Lamb; Elia; Lamb

Instance hypernyms:

essayist; litterateur (a writer of literary works)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A person easily deceived or cheated (especially in financial matters)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("lamb" is a kind of...):

dupe; victim (a person who is tricked or swindled)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A sweet innocent mild-mannered person (especially a child)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

dear; lamb

Hypernyms ("lamb" is a kind of...):

inexperienced person; innocent (a person who lacks knowledge of evil)

Sense 5

Meaning:

The flesh of a young domestic sheep eaten as food

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("lamb" is a kind of...):

meat (the flesh of animals (including fishes and birds and snails) used as food)

Meronyms (parts of "lamb"):

cut of lamb (cut of meat from a lamb)

loin of lamb (meat from a loin of lamb)

Holonyms ("lamb" is a part of...):

domestic sheep; Ovis aries (any of various breeds raised for wool or edible meat or skin)

Derivation:

lamb (give birth to a lamb)

• LAMB (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they lamb    ... he / she / it lambs   
Past simple: lambed   
Past participle: lambed   
-ing form: lambing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Give birth to a lamb

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Context example:

the ewe lambed

Hypernyms (to "lamb" is one way to...):

bear; birth; deliver; give birth; have (cause to be born)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

lamb (young sheep)

lamb (the flesh of a young domestic sheep eaten as food)

 Context examples 

What, the town! he continued, the whole world shall hear of it! and his heart wagged with joy like a lamb’s tail.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

She knows what our real objects are, and she don't have any more alarms or suspicions about us, than if we was so many lambs.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

You thoughtful creeter, you're determined we shan't miss that dear lamb ef you can help it.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The Scotland-based team that created Dolly the sheep in 1998 required 277 attempts and produced only one lamb.

(Healthy cloned monkeys born in Shanghai, Wikinews)

According to Lamb, when plastic debris meets coral, the likelihood of disease increases from 4 – 89 per cent.

(Plastic debris linked to coral disease, death, SciDev.Net)

As a lamb fares in a land of wolves.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A lamb, I should say, or a kid.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

If some go, you mark my words, sir, Silver'll bring 'em aboard again as mild as lambs.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Ay, the white lamb, she might well be surprised when she read death on a face that had seldom looked anything but love upon her before.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I could not lay a finger anywhere but I was pricked; and now I seem to have gathered up a stray lamb in my arms.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)