lamb

/læm/

/læm/

Other forms: lambs; lambing; lambed

A lamb is a baby sheep. Most female sheep, or ewes, give birth to one or two lambs each spring. Lambs are so cute that they tend to show up in nursery rhymes — as in "Mary had a little lamb." Awwww.

When you're petting a newborn sheep, you can call it a lamb, but if you're eating meat that comes from this same animal, it's a mass noun, lamb without the a. The word can be a verb too, as when a ewe lambs, or gives birth, and it's been a common pet name, especially for a young child, since at least the eleventh century: "Okay, time for bed, lamb!"

Definitions of lamb

1. noun

   young sheep
   types:

   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

   type of:

   young mammal

   any immature mammal
2. noun

   the flesh of a young domestic sheep eaten as food
   type of:

   meat

   the flesh of animals (including fishes and birds and snails) used as food
3. verb

   give birth to a lamb
   “the ewe lambed”

   type of:

   bear, birth, deliver, give birth, have

   cause to be born
4. noun

   a person easily deceived or cheated (especially in financial matters)
   type of:

   dupe, pigeon, victim

   a person who is easily tricked or swindled
5. noun

   a sweet innocent mild-mannered person (especially a child)
   synonyms: dear

   type of:

   inexperienced person, innocent

   a person who lacks knowledge of evil