lamb

Origin:
before 900; Middle English, Old English; cognate with Dutch lam, German Lamm, Old Norse, Gothic lamb; akin to Greek élaphos deer. See elk

Can be confused: lam, lamb.

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

Charles ( "Elia" ) 1775–1834, English essayist and critic.

Harold A. 1892–1962, U.S. novelist.

Mary Ann, 1764–1847, English author who wrote in collaboration with her brother Charles Lamb.

William, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, 1779–1848, English statesman: prime minister 1834, 1835–41.

Willis E(ugene), Jr. 1913–2008, U.S. physicist: Nobel prize 1955.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To lamb

Collins

World English Dictionary

lamb (læm)

—n
1.	the young of a sheep
2.	the meat of a young sheep
3.	a person, esp a child, who is innocent, meek, good, etc
4.	a person easily deceived
5.	like a lamb to the slaughter
	a. without resistance
	b. innocently

—vb
6.	(intr) Also: lamb down (of a ewe) to give birth
7.	(tr; used in the passive) (of a lamb) to be born
8.	(intr) (of a shepherd) to tend the ewes and newborn lambs at lambing time

[Old English lamb, from Germanic; compare German Lamm, Old High German and Old Norse lamb]

'lamblike

—*adj*

Lamb¹ (læm)

—n
	the Lamb a title given to Christ in the New Testament

Lamb² (læm)

—n
1.	Charles, pen name Elia. 1775--1834, English essayist and critic. He collaborated with his sister Mary on Tales from Shakespeare (1807). His other works include Specimens of English Dramatic Poets (1808) and the largely autobiographical essays collected in Essays of Elia (1823; 1833)
2.	William. See (2nd Viscount) Melbourne
3.	Willis Eugene. 1913--2008, US physicist. He detected the small difference in energy between two states of the hydrogen atom (Lamb shift). Nobel prize for physics 1955

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

lamb

O.E. lamb, from P.Gmc. *lambaz (cf. O.N., O.Fris., Goth. lamb, M.H.G. lamp, Ger. lamm "lamb"). Common to the Gmc. languages, but with no known cognates outside them. O.E. plural was lomberu. Applied to persons (especially young Church members, gentle souls, etc.) from late O.E. Also sometimes used ironically

for cruel or rough characters (e.g. Kirke's Lambs in wars of 1684-86).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Easton

Bible Dictionary

Lamb definition

(1.) Heb. kebes, a male lamb from the first to the third year. Offered daily at the morning and the evening sacrifice (Ex. 29:38-42), on the Sabbath day (Num. 28:9), at the feast of the New Moon (28:11), of Trumpets (29:2), of Tabernacles (13-40), of Pentecost (Lev. 23:18-20), and of the Passover (Ex. 12:5), and on many other occasions (1 Chr. 29:21; 2 Chr. 29:21; Lev. 9:3; 14:10-25). (2.) Heb. taleh, a young sucking lamb (1 Sam. 7:9; Isa. 65:25). In the symbolical language of Scripture the lamb is the type of meekness and innocence (Isa. 11:6; 65:25; Luke 10:3; John 21:15). The lamb was a symbol of Christ (Gen. 4:4; Ex. 12:3; 29:38; Isa. 16:1; 53:7; John 1:36; Rev. 13:8). Christ is called the Lamb of God (John 1:29, 36), as the great sacrifice of which the former sacrifices were only types (Num. 6:12; Lev. 14:12-17; Isa. 53:7; 1 Cor. 5:7).

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

lamb

see hanged for a sheep (as a lamb); in two shakes (of a lamb's tail); like a lamb to the slaughter.