mountain sheep
- noun
:
oveja de montaña
- During our hike, we spotted a group of mountain sheep grazing on the steep cliffs.
- elk and mountain sheep
- deer and mountain sheep
- moose and mountain sheep
Examples
-
We call to the elk or to the mountain sheep, and they share themselves.
Fiction book (1992) -
Elk, deer, and mountain sheep still let us kill them.
Fiction book (1992) -
Almost no buffalo or elk, and only mountain sheep up in the hills.
Fiction book (1992) -
When she explained her project, she says, the motel owner gasped, "Oh, the mountain sheep, they're so important!"
Blog text (29) -
At last she found what she was looking for: wool combed from black mountain sheep, woven with silk into a light, flexible fabric of lustrous silver-black.
Fiction book (1993) -
Large game animals still roam free in the Northwest Territories, among them moose, mountain sheep, muskox, wolves, caribou, and grizzly and polar bears.
Academic text (1991) -
The rugged terrain of the Rockies is home to many mountain sheep, including the elusive bighorn.
-
Wildlife enthusiasts flock to the national park to observe mountain sheep in their natural habitat.
Synonyms
4
7.6
A wild mountain sheep with large curved horns from western North America
3
6.5
A wild sheep with large curved horns that lives in the mountains of western North America
1
8.3
A wild sheep with big curved horns that lives in the mountains of western North America
A wild sheep with short curved horns and a brown coat that lives in mountains
A wild mountain sheep with short curved horns and brown fur from Corsica and Sardinia
A wild sheep with large curved horns that lives in western North American mountains
A wild sheep from North Africa with a reddish-brown coat and curved horns that lives on rocky slopes
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun–noun compound is fully compositional: 'mountain' modifies 'sheep' to indicate sheep that live in mountainous areas, so the overall meaning follows directly from the constituents. This locational modifier pattern is common across languages and would be readily inferred by a B1 learner who knows both words.
Etymology
The noun mountain sheep comes from the simple image of a sheep living on a mountain, an animal that walks on steep, rocky slopes. So, the name means 'any wild sheep' that lives in high, rocky areas.