Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US campus) of men, long-haired.

1975

G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 65: sheepish adj Long-haired (of males).

see under bite v.

see under cocky n.²

1. (Aus./US) inferior whisky, or any bad alcohol.

1882		E. Nye Forty Liars (1888) 260: He had been down to Sam Wood’s and hoisted in about six fingers of what was known [...] as Vinegar Hill Sheep Dip.
1897		Witchita Dly Eagle (KS) 31 Aug. 5/3: Rossler got hold of a pint of Vinegar Hill sheep dip and [...] got abusive.
1901		Dly Arkasas Gaz. (Little Rock, AR) 24 Nov. 13/2: ‘Give me some o’ that sheep-dip, Charley,’ she called to the bartender, who [...] set out a black bottle of whiskey.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Nov. 16/4: Hear some quaint slang among Australian shearers occasionally. One of the fraternity confided to me on the board the other evening that he ‘had peeled 88, and was dragging the chain behind Nugget Smith,’ but had ‘bet him a bottle of sheep dip’ that he’d ‘wheel him next day.’.
1930		Port Huron Times Herald 13 Nov. 2/4: [headline] Five indicted for Sheep Dip Rum.
1931		(con. 1918) E.W. Springs Rise and Fall of Carol Banks 290: ‘No sheep dip for me.’ ‘Never fear! [...] the likker is good enough to spill on your shoes.’.
1940		M. West My Little Chickadee [film script] A little sheep dip, a panacea for all stomach ailments.
1951		Salt Lake Trib. (UT) 24 Aug. 6/7: The effete cast drinks whiskey on the rocks [...] A gulp of sheep-dip won’t rearrange the drinking habits of the majority.

2. (US) nonsense, esp. in phr. hog-wash and sheep dip.

1896		Sante Fe Dly New Mexican (NM) 16 Oct. 2/2: What a tremendous smile this sort of hog-wash and sheep dip must cause to flit over the faces of [...] growers of New Mexico.
1913		Independence Dly Reporter (KS) 16 July 1/5: The dispensers of South Coffeyville brand of hog-wash and sheep dip.
1943		H.A. Smith Life in a Putty Knife Factory (1948) 130: They spew out hogwash and sheep-dip from day to day, and they accept large sums of money for their daily drool.
1945		R.L. Bellem ‘Suicide Stunt’ Speed Detective Apr. 🌐 Which [denial] was just so much sheep-dip, of course. [...] But I didn’t say so to Steve Duane.
1972		Bee (Danville, VA) 27 Sept. 4/1: All of that yak-yak [...] is just a lot more hog-wash and sheep dip.

3. (Aus./US) coarse tobacco, issued in prisons [the use of tobacco as a constituent of agricultural sheep dip].

1877		Austin Wkly Statesman (TX) 9 Aug. 3/3: [advert] Sheep-Dip Tobacco for sale.
1925		Courier-Jrnl (Louisville, KY) 8 Nov. 19/6: Tom filled his pipe and lit it, whereupon his partner breathed [...] ‘Put out that smudge [...] the idea of lightin’ sheep-dip in a sick-room!’.
1967		J. Stuart Part of Glory 157: I could smoke or leave it alone, and as the jail weed was ‘nail rod’ or ‘sheep dip’ I left it severely alone.

(Aus.) working as a sheep hand.

1936

A. Russell Gone Nomad 27: Next to my dogs and two or three horses of my cattle-camp and sheep-dodging days, these two little jenny pack-mules lie nearest to my heart.

a general term of contempt.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

nonsense, deception.

2000

Guardian Sport 29 Apr. 12: He’s claiming he’s got some sort of eye infection, which, as we all know, is sheep’s arse.

(Aus./N.Z.) luxury, indolence, security; usu. in phr. on the sheep’s back, living very comfortably, securely.

1923		Sydney Stock and Station Jrnl 7 Dec. 7/3: It was this year that a State Minister answered that financially ‘Australia is on the sheep’s back’.
1935		Sydney Morn. Herald 26 Apr. 10/5: Australia, a country living ‘on the sheep’s back’ stands in danger of becoming brutalised [...] by the policy of economic nationalism.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1958		Age (Melbourne) 2 July 15/3: In spite of this, Australia was still living on the ‘sheep’s back’.
1974		Sydney Morn. Herald 1 Sept. 91/2: When times are good, living off the sheep’s back is very good.
1989		Sydney Morn. Herald 19 Mar. 17/1: Living Off the Sheep’s Back [...] The Frosts, who run a 1,500-acre sheep property at Yass, know the [...] benefits to theirlivelihood.
1990		Syndey Morn. Herald 28 Sept. 22/2: After a generation of living off the sheep's back, Australia suddenly finds itself with a mountain of wool [and] a sheep ppulation which needs to be culled.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 184: sheep’s back, living on/off the Relying on wool to sustain income handsomely. ANZ 1930s.

1. a Scot; orig. a derog. ref. to Scots regiments, esp. the Black Watch.

[1958		M. Bence-Jones Paradise Escaped 73: I used to know a Rockburn once [...] He was in the Sheep Shaggers [OED]].
1979		J. Morrow Confessions of Proinsias O’Toole 19: The Major leant out of the Land Rover [...] and screamed: ‘Filthy Jock sheepshaggers!’.
1984		(con. WW2) T. Jones Heart of Oak [ebook] ‘There’ll always be an England,’ yelled another, ‘as long as Scotland stands!’ [...] ‘Come to bloody Wales and say that, you fucking sheep-shagger!’ I challenged the corporal.
2010		R. Stuart Atlantic Adventure 73: [This] was obviously why his Irish mates were collectively known as bog—trotters, which was still a bit better than what he and his fellow members of the Black Watch were known as (sheep—shaggers).

2. (also yak-shagger) a peasant.

1974		Guardian 15 July 8/3: ‘ho would notice you, a passing sheep-shagger?’.
1979		J. Morrow Confessions of Proinsias O’Toole 155: These Nepalese yak-shaggers can fend for themselves.
1982		Marshfield News-Herald (WI) 12 July 14/4: The enemy [in the Falklands war] was referred to as ‘the Argies,’ and the ‘sheep shaggers’.
1998		Guardian 14 Oct. 34/3: Jonathan Meades [...] referred to natives of that part of the world [i.e. Somerset] as ‘triple-headed sheep-shaggers’.
1999		Roger’s Profanisaurus 3 in Viz 98 Oct. 18: joskin, joskynn. A yokel; a county bumpkin; a sheep shagger.
1999		Age (Melbourne) 12 June 246/1: Australians never pass up an opportunity to call New Zealanders a bunch of sheep shaggers.
2001		I. Rankin Falls 420: ‘Bollocks!’ he’d yelled from his window, giving each sheep-shagger and country bumpkin the finger.
2001		OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 sheepshagger n. person deemed to copulate with sheep because they comes from a ‘rural area’ and (thus) are short of woman. The result being an invariable desire/need to copulate with sheep. Used by any city dweller for anyone from the suburbs and beyond.
2009		P. Temple Truth 76: Son [...] you’re on staff till I say you’re not. Currently on loan to police the sheepshaggers.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 306: A bunch ay fuckin sheepshaggers wi thair diddy European Cup Winners’ Cup.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 96: The necessary authorization for us to join forces with our sheep-shagging comrades on the wild west isle of Anglesey and nick these cowboys.
2019		P. Temple ‘High Art’ in The Red Hand 21: ‘Bit like the Ghan [...] Only the sheepshaggers here don’t try to take you out with old SAM-7’s’’.

3. a Welshman.

1997		Fraser & Meadows TwentyFourSeven [film script] (1998) 49: knighty: So where are you two from? student: Conway, in Wales. knighty: Sheep-shagger, ah?
2001		N. Griffiths Sheepshagger 19: I want yew bastards out! [...] – Any time, sheepshaggers! We’ll be waiting!
2003		Guardian 20 Jan. 59/3: She thought it was a huge joke to say Welsh people were [...] sheep-shaggers.

4. attrib. use of sense 3.

2003

N. Griffiths Stump 11: Imagine it; some sheepshagger bizzy pulls us over for speedin.

5. (Aus./N.Z.) an Australian or New Zealander, depending on the nationality of the speaker.

2003

McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

committing bestiality with a sheep; thus attrib.

1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 218: You never see a Taffy in for knocking off. Only sheep-shagging.
1971		Observer 28 Nov. 32/2: Village life, with its constant hints of sheep-shaging, is ludicrous enough to be funny.
1993		Observer 12 Dec. 74/1: The players got into a sheep-shaging routine which, butfor the gutteral Serbo-Croat accents [...] could have been all about Welsh hill farmers.
2000		(con. 1986) Age (Melbourne) 12 Nov. 39/2: The full house [...] was taunting the socceroos with the chant [...] ‘sheep-shagging bastards, you’re only sheep-shagging bastards’.
2003		Guardian 2 June 130/1: The speaker told these terrible sheep-shagging jokes.
2005		P. Temple Broken Shore (2007) [ebook] Want a transfer to Port Monro? [...] Just pub fights and sheep-shagging.

a fool, esp. a talkative one; thus sheepheaded adj.

1542		Udal Erasmus’ Apophthegms (1877) 122: Those persones who were sely poore soules... wer euen then... by a common prouerbe called shepes heads or shepe .
1605		Chapman All Fooles I ii: What, no more compliment? Kiss her, you sheep’s head!
c.1621		Massinger Maid of Honour (1632) II ii: You, sirrha Sheepes-head, With a face cut on a cat-stick.
1623		J. Taylor ‘A Discovery by Sea’ in Works (1869) II 26: Yet is it most Idolatrously adored, honoured, & worshipped by those simple Sheepeheaded fooles.
1639		J. Taylor Crabtree Lectures 165: You are a meere Sheepeshead, or rather a Rams head in a Wolfes Skinne.
1653		A. Wilson Inconstant Ladie IV i: Farewell, good sheepe’s-heads!
1675		Fumblers-Hall 21: Susan Shrews-face: I have a Sheeps-head to my husband, that’s bewicthed to dessembling whores.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Sheep’s head a Fool, a Block-head.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1735		Dyche & Pardon New General Eng. Dict. n.p.: Sheeps-Head [...] also a Nick Name for a bashful, foolish, silly or ignorant Person.
1744		Dyche & Pardon New General Eng. Dict. (4th edn).
1790		Dialogue between a Noted Shoemaker & his Wife 6: You lie! sheep’s-head! I am as honest a woman as any in the parish.
1878		J. Payne (trans.) Poems of Villon 87: My poor orphans, all the three, Are grown in age, and wit likewise, No sheepsheads are they, I can see.
1894		G. du Maurier Trilby 106: Great big she-fool that you are – sheep’s-head!
1909		‘O. Henry’ Roads of Destiny 202: You blankety-blank, flop-eared, sheepheaded coyote.
1914		S. Lewis Our Mr Wrenn (1936) 26: Ain’t both them ushers the jingling sheeps-heads, though!

a swindler, a confidence trickster, esp. one who works the jack in a box n. confidence trick; thus sheep-shearing n.

1608		Dekker Lanthorne and Candle-Light Ch. 11: This art or slight of changing Gold into Siluer, is called Trimming. They that practise it, terme them-selues Sheepe-shearers [...] how hast thou beene Trim’d, Washd, Shauen, and Polld by these Deere and Damnable Barbers; how often hast thou mette with these Sheep-shearers? how many warme flakes of Woll haue they pulled from thy Back.
1664		C. Cotton Virgil Travestie (1765) Bk I 60: Drink, that she, with much forbearing, / Havd sav’d long since for her Sheep-shearing.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Sheep-shearers c. Cheats.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].

see separate entry.

weak alcohol, usu. beer.

2000

N. Griffiths Grits 379: Tha Americans ar largely tossers, an fat, an ther beer’s sheep’s piss.

1. a bit of shirt-tail that protrudes through a hole in torn trousers.

1974

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

2. the person (usu. a boy) who has such a costume.

1974

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

1. poor beer or spirits.

1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 141: SHEEPWASH: Aust. bush concocted liquor, inferior liquor. [...] Shanty keepers [...] are often accused of putting salt-beef, tobacco, bluestone, etc. in their grog [...] All these, with the exception of beef, are common ingredients of sheepwash.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1956		Age (Melbourne) 14 July 15/5: The first Australian [she] met came up to the ship’s bar [...] and loudly demanded ‘sheep wash.’ Then, beer in hand [etc].
2000		(con. 1855) Age (Melbourne) 25 Apr. 52/2: The Colonial ale enjoyed such derogatory nicknames as ‘sheep wash,’ ‘tangle-foot’ [...] ‘stringybark’ and ‘shypoo’.

2. (also sheepwash tobacco) poor tobacco.

1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Sept. 14/4: ‘Wayback’ [...] is surprised at drunks in backblocks. He wouldn’t be if he found (as I did) a publican in the act of nailing a quarter twist of ‘sheepwash’ tobacco inside of a 10-gal rum-keg prior to despatching it to the bush races up creek. No wonder men die of D.T’s.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 16: The villainous sheep-wash tobacco she smoked.

see does a bear shit in the woods? Is the pope (a) Catholic? phr.

to hang in chains.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 638/1: C.18-early 19.

(N.Z.) used of an unintelligent person.

2003

McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.