sheepe
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English[edit]
Noun[edit]
sheepe (plural sheepe)
- Obsolete form of sheep.
- 1591, Edmund Spenser, The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume 5[1]:
- "Gladly," said he, "what ever such like paine Ye put on me, I will the same sustaine: But gladliest I of your fleecie sheepe (Might it you please) would take on me the keep. 290 For ere that unto armes I me betooke, Unto my fathers sheepe I usde to looke, That yet the skill thereof I have not loste: Thereto right well this curdog, by my coste, (Meaning the Foxe,) will serve my sheepe to gather, And drive to follow after their belwether."
- 1598, Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation, Vol. XII., America, Part I.[2]:
- The grasse and herbe doth fat sheepe in very short space, proued by English marchants which haue caried sheepe thither for fresh victuall and had them raised exceeding fat in lesse then three weekes.
- 1756, Prosper Paleologus Constantine, Sir John Constantine[3]:
- Nay, Number it selfe in Armies importeth not much where the People is of weake courage: For (as Virgil saith) It never troubles a Wolfe, how many the sheepe be."
- 1850, Various, Notes and Queries, Number 59, December 14, 1850[4]:
- Hen. VIII. (Black letter), in Bodleian Library, occurs:-- "There was two men of _Gottam, and the one of them was going to the market to Nottingham to buy sheepe, and the other came from the market; and both met together upon Nottingham bridge.
- 1594, Richard Barnfield, The Affectionate Shepherd[5]:
- And when th'art wearie of thy keeping sheepe Upon a lovely downe, to please thy minde, Ile give thee fine ruffe-footed doves to keepe, And pretie pidgeons of another kinde: A robbin-redbrest shall thy minstrell bee, Chirping thee sweet and pleasant melodie.
- 1880, Richard Jefferies, Round About a Great Estate[6]:
- So, too, He leared his sheepe as he him list When he would whistle in his fist; and the shepherd still guides and encourages his sheep by whistling.
- 1905, George Chapman, Bussy D'Ambois and The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois[7]:
- They will make a sheepe valiant, a lion fearefull.
- 1504, Nicholas Udall, Roister Doister[8]:
- And haue ye cattell too? and sheepe too?