Shepherd Meaning
/ˈʃɛpəd/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA person who tends sheep, especially a grazing flock.
nounA person who tends sheep, especially a grazing flock., A male sheep tender
Sentence Examples
The German Shepherd was limping down the street.
The shepherd, even when he become a gentleman, smells of the lamb.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
CEFR Practice Quiz
Every morning the ____ takes the sheep to the grassy field for grazing.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The local ____ followed his flock across the hills, guiding them toward better pastures.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English schepherde, from Old English sċēaphierde, a compound of sċēap (“sheep”) and hierde (“herdsman”), equivalent to modern sheep + herd (“herder”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. He wore shepherd's plaid trousers and the swallow-tail coat of the day, with a figured muslin cravat wound about his wide-spread collar."
— 1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., →OCLC, page 01:
"The dirt floor, low ceiling and unfinished stone walls were barely illuminated by candles and a dim string of green decorative lights. A nervous shepherd mix barked at me as a woman tried to calm it. When my eyes adjusted, I saw people in corners."
— 2022 May 19, James Verini, “Surviving the Siege of Kharkiv”, in The New York Times Magazine:
"For me has Pain, the sentinel, / Been vigilant / To pace my plot and dwell / Within my tent; / Oft in the night with small alarms / Has stirred me out of rest, / Alert, oppressed, / Till shepherded within thine arms / And on thy breast, / O loving Lady, in the curse of Pain / I have been blest— / […]"
— 1893, Norman Gale, “In Pain”, in Orchard Songs, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews & John Lane; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, pages 34–35:
"Each entry in this volume was assigned to a different preeminent scholar who was responsible for shepherding that specific entry, and that specific entry alone, into being."
— 2012, The Onion Book of Known Knowledge, page viii:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
Every morning the ____ takes the sheep to the grassy field for grazing.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The local ____ followed his flock across the hills, guiding them toward better pastures.