sheephood

English

Etymology

From sheep +‎ -hood.

Noun

sheephood (uncountable)

1. The state of being a sheep.
   • 1912 August 5, “ZOO SHEEP ACTS JUST LIKE A CAT; […]”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 November 2025:

     Just then the woolly offender made her appearance, and Bill [Snyder] forgot his mishap and stooped to scratch her head. Tne animal, he said, was just budding from lambhood into sheephood, and her only fault was that she could not forget her bringing up.

   • 1936 May 23, “TOO MUCH FARLEY”, in The New York Times‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 November 2025:

     A single question put to him is good for a prophecy or a speech. “Hast any philosophy in thee, shepherd?” Shepherd FARLEY abounds in it. Not content with collecting the Democratic sheep into the fold, he insists upon instructing them in all the duties of sheephood.

   • 1967 October 22, Russell Baker, “Observer: A Good School Is a Bad Business”, in The New York Times‎^[3], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 November 2025:

     In the cruel system of sorting sheep from goats that America has evolved since World War II, admission to college is the critical passage into sheephood, and Harvard College is the gateway to the fleeciest sheephood of all.

   • 1985 June 9, Joseph Berger, “SECT ORDERED TO STOP SHELTERING TEEN-AGERS”, in The New York Times‎^[4], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 24 May 2015:

     A pamphlet tacked onto the residence's front door had a picture of Jesus and a flock of sheep and said in part, "Now if you are tired of wandering in the world and realize that you will only get lost in its unfulfilling cycles then we hope you will let us help you find your destination back to sheephood."

   • 2002 January 11, Ellen Goodman, “Mind Over Muscle”, in The Washington Post‎^[5], Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 November 2025:

     First there was the bad news about cloning, the genetic path to immortality. Dolly the clone has come up with arthritis in her prime sheephood.

   • 2019 August 3, Imogen Russell Williams, “Children’s and teens roundup: the best new picture books and novels”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[6], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 3 August 2019:

     In picture books this month, the superlative Morag Hood returns with Brenda Is a Sheep (Two Hoots), a suspense-filled account of a young sheep who isn’t like the rest, what with her pointy teeth, antipathy to grass and increasing desire to eat her companions. But the flock love Brenda’s unusual approach to sheephood; will their adoration change the predator’s mind?