black sheep
15
4.8
- noun
- /blæk ʃip/
- Offensive
:
oveja negra
- At family gatherings, he's often treated like the black sheep because of his unconventional lifestyle.
- the black sheep of the family
- the black sheep of the clan
- always the black sheep
But, you know, I always have been, you know, they call it a black sheep.
- But, you know, I always have been, you know, they call it a black sheep.
- And my mom was, of course, immediately the black sheep of the family for committing the sin of adultery.
- So no one wants to be the black sheep of their group because they know then that makes them like, you know, well the black sheep, right?
- Gwenda Bogle says being a black sheep is still being a sheep.
- It's a big fucking agency, but it can't be treated like the black sheep because guess what?
- And I wasn't ashamed of it, but I kind of thought myself a little bit as a black sheep growing up in this family of academics.
- And then once I got ahead of everybody, I had the, the, the black sheep kind of mindset about training and being OK with, you know, in football, you're busy cunts.
- Yeah, you know, But I feel like for me, if it was me, I would just want to know because then I would feel like a like a black sheep.
Examples
-
And I wasn't ashamed of it, but I kind of thought myself a little bit as a black sheep growing up in this family of academics.
-
She's the black sheep of her family.
-
I was the black sheep of the family.
-
I guess that makes you the black sheep of the family, huh?
-
Why are you the black sheep?
-
When I was young, I was the golden child and my sister was the black sheep.
Blog text (17) -
"I felt like the black sheep of my family."
Blog text (26) -
But he's always been the black sheep of the family.
-
Quite often, they're the black sheep of the family.
Fiction book (1996) -
That's because he's always been the black sheep of the family.
Synonyms
81
5.1
A person who other people reject and avoid
4
9.9
A person who lies, cheats, or treats others badly
1
5.6
A person who other people do not respect because they behave badly
A person who is excluded from a caste or social group and treated as outside society
People who are most hated and looked down on in a society
A person who is not wanted in a place or group
Antonyms
How Ostracized
Surface Forms
Morphology
black + sheep
The phrase evokes the literal image of a black animal set apart from a flock, so a learner who knows 'black' and 'sheep' might guess it refers to someone different or singled out. However, the specific evaluative meaning 'a disgrace or outcast' is a cultural/idiomatic extension not directly predictable from the constituents, so the relation is partly but not fully transparent (and similar metaphors exist cross-linguistically).
Etymology
The idiom black sheep may come from old farming: a real black sheep stood out among white ones and its dark wool could not be dyed, so farmers often did not want it. That's why today 'black sheep' means a person who is seen as a 'disgrace' or an 'outcast' in a family or group.