lamb

From Middle English lamb, from Old English lamb, from Proto-West Germanic *lamb, from Proto-Germanic *lambaz, reputed to be from Proto-Indo-European *h₁l̥h₁onbʰos, enlargement of *h₁elh₁én, ultimately from *h₁el-.

See also Dutch lam, German Lamm, Swedish lamm, Finnish lammas, Scottish Gaelic lon (“elk”), Ancient Greek ἔλαφος (élaphos, “red deer”). More at elk.

• IPA^(key): /læm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æm

lamb (plural lambs or (both dialectal) lamber or lambren)

1. A young sheep.

   Synonym: sheepling

2. The flesh of a lamb or sheep used as food.
3. (figuratively) A person who is meek, docile and easily led.
4. A simple, unsophisticated person.
5. (finance, slang) One who ignorantly speculates on the stock exchange and is victimized.
6. (slang) A fan of American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer Mariah Carey (born 1969).

   Alternative form: Lamb

   Holonym: Lambily

   • 2003, Bust, page 88:

     Part of me revels in the campiness of Mariah’s butterfly metaphors and puppies-and-kittens existence. I mean, she’s the Judy Garland for a new generation of gay men. But I also genuinely love her music, including this album. I’m one of her lambs.

   • 2003, Sister 2 Sister, page 82:

     In addition to the re-release of the album, Mariah will kick off a tour that includes picks from fans—or “lambs” as she calls them—[…].

   • 2003 June, “20 Sleazy Rock Moments”, in Spin, volume 19, number 6, section 5 (“Hello, Lambs!”), page 69:

     Officially, she was “exhausted,” but before checking into a New York hospital in July 2001, Mariah Carey went on a remarkable binge of public meltdowns. First, she bum-rushed MTV’s TRL, pushing an ice-cream cart and freaking out host Carson Daly by reading a love letter to him from her mother (did we mention she was stripping at the time?). Later, Carey reportedly smashed glasses and dishes in a New York City hotel suite, then left nutty fan-site messages to her “lambs,” stating a need for “like, a minute off.”

   • 2010 February 15, Greg Kot, “Mimi cuts loose: Mariah Carey concert at Chicago Theatre shows that the diva can laugh at herself”, in Chicago Tribune, 163rd year, number 46, section 3, page 6:

     Her latest album, “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel,” is her best work yet, a warmer and more subtle album that makes her more relatable to those of us who aren’t Mariah die-hards—or “lambs,” as she refers to them.

   • 2019 January 3, Rich Juzwiak, “In Praise of Their Diva”, in The New York Times, section D, page 1:

     This year, Ms. Carey debuted a new Las Vegas revue, and, to celebrate, a group of 36 “lambs,” mostly in their 30s and 40s, boarded a party bus and cruised the Vegas strip for about three hours. […] [picture with “#Lamb4Life”] Ms. Carey among the lambs on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2015. […] But in conversations with more than a dozen self-identified lambs, it was her songwriting that was most consistently cited as her defining feature. […] The lambs’ investment in the arc of Ms. Carey’s life and art echoes that of the fandoms surrounding her ’90s contemporaries who are regarded as “confessional” women singer-songwriters, like Tori Amos and Ani DiFranco.

   • 2020 February 25, Chris Azzopardi, “I Love You (But Do You Love Mariah Carey?)”, in The New York Times‎:

     “I’ll fall for you if … your favorite Mariah Carey song is a deep cut,” I had written, attempting to connect with other “lambs,” the nickname for those who are considered her biggest fans. […] Mariah Carey signs autographs for her “lambs,” the nickname for those who are considered her biggest fans. […] But when I saw Mariah in Detroit last year during the Caution World Tour, I was a proud lamb in my tour T-shirt, my very adult body suddenly transformed into my 14-year-old self when she emerged onstage.

   • 2020 October 2, David Oliver, “Carey is deeply vulnerable in memoir”, in Telegraph-Forum, volume 98, number 208, Bucyrus, Ohio, page 6B:

     But Carey fans – also known as her “lambs” – really know her, and leap to her defense any chance they get. […] But Carey’s fans (her “lambs”) drive everything she does.

   • 2020 December 1, “New this week: Selena series, 'Shameless' and Shawn Mendes”, in Tipton County Tribune, volume 130, number 246, Tipton, Ind., page 4:

     During a normal, non-pandemic year, Carey and her Christmas craziness would be on a holiday tour, bringing joy to fans and lambs in-person.

   • 2022, “Mariah Carey releases her exclusive Pride merchandise”, in WRMF‎:

     Pride Month begins June 1, and Mariah Carey is giving her lambs plenty of new clothes to celebrate.

   • 2020 December 28, Rocco Papa, “10 Memorable Mariah Carey Moments That Saved 2020 For Her Lambs”, in Odyssey‎:

     Ever since Carey revealed on Twitter that she filmed a video for the "Daydream" track, "Underneath The Stars," years ago, lambs have been anxious to see it.

   • 2022 February 15, Brenda Alexander, “Nick Cannon Wants Mariah Carey Back Despite the Impending Arrival of His Eighth Child”, in Showbiz CheatSheet‎:

     In the song, Cannon expresses regret over a lost relationship, which leads Carey’s lambs to believe he’s speaking of her.

   • 2022 March 19, Ryan Schocket, “Mariah Carey Accidentally Texted Shawn Mendes Instead Of Her Nephew "Shawn M." And It's Hilarious”, in BuzzFeed‎:

     Well, Mariah is super close with her nephew, whose name is Shawn M. All lambs like myself know that he's always been a huge part of her life. […] Now, true lambs know that Mariah doesn't acknowledge time, so there's no such thing as an "old" Mariah Carey song.

   • 2022 April 19, Glenn Rowley, “Mariah Carey Celebrates ‘Big Big Energy Moment’ With a Splashy Video: Watch”, in Billboard‎:

     In the clip, the Elusive Chanteuse emerges in slow motion from a pool, wearing a sparkling indigo one-piece as she shows off her famous whistle register in the song’s opening moments. From there, she’s all smiles as she struts poolside and makes a splash in her perfectly on-brand heels covered with butterflies of the same color, captioning the post, “Big Big Energy moment! And thank you lambs for the Sweet Sweet Fantasy revival! #BigEnergyRemix.”

lamb (third-person singular simple present lambs, present participle lambing, simple past and past participle lambed)

1. (intransitive) Of a sheep, to give birth.
2. (transitive or intransitive) To assist (sheep) to give birth.

   The shepherd was up all night, lambing her young ewes.

• ALBM, BAML, BLAM, LBMA, balm, blam

From Old Norse lamb, from Proto-Germanic *lambaz.

lamb n (genitive singular lambs, plural lomb)

1. lamb (both the animal and meat)
2. kid (baby goat)
3. (playing cards, stýrivolt) seven of the chosen cards (trump seven)

• gimburlamb (female lamb)
• veðurlamb (male lamb)

lamb

1. Romanization of 𐌻𐌰𐌼𐌱

From Old Norse lamb, from Proto-Germanic *lambaz.

• IPA^(key): /lamp/
• Rhymes: -amp

lamb n (genitive singular lambs, nominative plural lömb)

1. a lamb

• launa lambið gráa
• ljúfur sem lamb
• vatna lömbum (compare the Old Norse krjúpa at keldu)

• lomb, lombe, loumbe, lambe, lom, lame, lamme

From Old English lamb, from Proto-West Germanic *lamb, from Proto-Germanic *lambaz.

• IPA^(key): /lam(b)/, /laːm(b)/, /lɔm(b)/, /lɔːm(b)/

lamb (plural lambren or lamber or lambes)

1. A lamb, its meat, or its skin.
2. A Christian believer.

• English: lamb
• Scots: lam, lamb
• Yola: lhawm, lowem

• “lō̆mb, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

From Old Norse lamb.

lamb n (definite singular lambet, definite singular dative lambe, indefinite plural lamb or lomb, definite plural lambi or lombi, definite plural dative lambom or lombom)

1. a lamb (young sheep); (pre-1938) alternative form of lam
2. (by extension, Christianity, figurative) Christ as sacrificial lamb

• lambekjøt
• påskelamb (“Passover lamb, Paschal Lamb”)

• lemb, lomb, lomber

From Proto-Germanic *lambaz.

• IPA^(key): /lɑmb/

lamb n (nominative plural lambru)

1. lamb

West Saxon:

Anglian:

• Middle English: lamb, lomb, lambe
  • English: lamb
  • Scots: lam, lamb

From Proto-West Germanic *lamb, see also Old Saxon lamb, Old English lamb, Old Norse lamb, Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌼𐌱 (lamb).

lamb n

1. lamb

• Middle High German: lamp, lam
  • Cimbrian: lamp
  • German: Lamm
  • Luxembourgish: Lamm
  • Vilamovian: łamm
  • Yiddish: לאַם‎ (lam)

1. Köbler, Gerhard, Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, (6. Auflage) 2014
2. Joseph Wright, An Old High German Primer, Second Edition

From Proto-Germanic *lambaz.

lamb n (genitive lambs, plural lǫmb)

1. a lamb

From Proto-West Germanic *lamb.

lamb n

1. lamb

• Low German: Lamm