lamb
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /læm/
ipa: [leəm]
rhymes: -æm
Forms: form: lambs
form: lamber
form: lambren
Etymology: From Middle English lamb, from Old English lamb, from Proto-West Germanic *lamb, from Proto-Germanic *lambaz, probably from Proto-Indo-European *h₁l̥h₁onbʰos, enlargement of *h₁elh₁én, ultimately from *h₁el-.
See also Dutch lam, German Lamm, Bavarian Lamperl, Danish lam, Swedish lamm, Finnish lammas, Scottish Gaelic lon (“elk”), Ancient Greek ἔλαφος (élaphos, “red deer”). More at elk.
Senses: examples: Mary had a little lamb, its fleece as white as snow.
synonyms: sheepling
glosses: A young sheep.
examples: The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 1611, →OCLC, Exodus 12:5: “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:”
glosses: A young goat; a kid.
hypernyms: meat
glosses: The flesh of a lamb or sheep used as food.
glosses: A person who is meek, docile and easily led.
examples: text: They were as alike as prisoners, dressed in black silk waists and fitted skirts, with shawls of crimped black lamb across their shoulders.
ref: 1934, Kay Boyle, My Next Bride, Virago, published 1986, page 8:
glosses: Lambskin.
glosses: A simple, unsophisticated person.
topics: business
finance
glosses: One who ignorantly speculates on the stock exchange and is victimized.
examples: text: Part of me revels in the campiness of Mariah’s butterfly metaphors and puppies-and-kittens existence. […] But I also genuinely love her music, including this album. I’m one of her lambs.
ref: 2003, Bust, page 88:
text: Her latest album, “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel,” is her best work yet, a warmer and more subtle album that makes her more relatable to those of us who aren’t Mariah die-hards—or “lambs,” as she refers to them.
ref: 2010 February 15, Greg Kot, “Mimi cuts loose: Mariah Carey concert at Chicago Theatre shows that the diva can laugh at herself”, in Chicago Tribune, 163rd year, number 46, section 3, page 6:
text: This year, Ms. Carey debuted a new Las Vegas revue, and, to celebrate, a group of 36 “lambs,” mostly in their 30s and 40s, boarded a party bus and cruised the Vegas strip for about three hours.
ref: 2019 January 3, Rich Juzwiak, “In Praise of Their Diva”, in The New York Times, section D, page 1:
text: But when I saw Mariah in Detroit last year during the Caution World Tour, I was a proud lamb in my tour T-shirt, my very adult body suddenly transformed into my 14-year-old self when she emerged onstage.
ref: 2020 February 25, Chris Azzopardi, “I Love You (But Do You Love Mariah Carey?)”, in The New York Times:
text: Pride Month begins June 1, and Mariah Carey is giving her lambs plenty of new clothes to celebrate.
ref: 2022, “Mariah Carey releases her exclusive Pride merchandise”, in WRMF:
holonyms: Lambily
related: word: Lamb
glosses: A fan of American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer Mariah Carey (born 1969).
Derived terms: baa-lamb
bar-lamb
beaver lamb
ewe lamb
gentle as a lamb
house lamb
in-lamb
in lamb
in like a lion, out like a lamb
innocent as a lamb
in two shakes of a lamb's tail
lamb-ale
lambchop
lamb down
lamber
Lambeth
lambfold
lamb fries
lambhood
lambie
lambiness
lambing
lambing season
lambish
lambkill
lambkin
lambless
lamblike
lambling
lamb of Tartary
lamb pie
lamb's bread
lamb's cress
lamb's ears
lambsfoot
lamb's fries
lambskin
lamb's lettuce
lambsquarters
lamb's quarters
lamb's tongue
lamb succory
lambswool
lamb to the slaughter
like a lamb to the slaughter
come like a lamb to the slaughter
as a lamb to the slaughter
lamburger
lamby
March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb
Mongolian lamb
mutton dressed as lamb
mutton dressed up as lamb
one may as well hang for a sheep as a lamb
Paschal Lamb
paschal lamb
Persian lamb
sacrificial lamb
Scythian lamb
skin the lamb
spider lamb syndrome
spring lamb
Tartarian lamb
tod and lambs
vegetable lamb