lamb

plural lambs · dialectal plural lamber · plural lambren

1. countableuncountableA young sheep; especially, one younger than nine months.

   Mary had a little lamb, its fleece as white as snow.

   1 more example

   Mark and Mark have raised some lambs for market, and they won a blue ribbon for quality at the fair.

   Synonyms: sheepling

2. countableobsoleteuncountableA young goat; a kid.

   The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 1611, →OCLC, Exodus 12:5: “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:”

3. uncountableThe flesh of a lamb used as food; (sometimes loosely) the flesh of a sheep of any age used as food.
4. countablefigurativelyuncountableA person who is meek, docile, and easily led.

   Near-synonym: sheep

   Synonyms: sheep

5. countableuncountableLambskin.

   They were as alike as prisoners, dressed in black silk waists and fitted skirts, with shawls of crimped black lamb across their shoulders.

   1934, Kay Boyle, My Next Bride, Virago, published 1986, page 8

6. countableuncountableA simple, unsophisticated person.
7. countableslanguncountablebusinessOne who ignorantly speculates on the stock exchange and is victimized.
8. countableslanguncountableA fan of American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer Mariah Carey (born 1969).

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

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

   4 more examples

   Part of me revels in the campiness of Mariah’s butterfly metaphors and puppies-and-kittens existence. […] But I also genuinely love her music, including this album. I’m one of her lambs.

   2003, Bust, page 88

   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.

   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

   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.

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

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

present singular third person lambs · participle present lambing · participle past lambed · past lambed

1. intransitiveOf a sheep, to give birth.
2. intransitivetransitiveTo assist (sheep) to give birth.

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

plural Lambs

1. countableuncountableA surname from Middle English.
2. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Craig Township, Switzerland County, Indiana, United States.
3. countableuncountableAn extinct town in Marion County, Missouri, United States.
4. countableuncountableAn islet (small island) in the Firth of Forth, East Lothian council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NT5386).

1. ChristianityJesus; the Lamb of God

   (See St. Paul's epistles, and the early Fathers.) And we have the expression "washed in the blood of the Lamb" adopted into the Christian Church.

   1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 40

   1 more example

   And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Revelation 12:10-11

   Synonyms: Paschal Lamb, Lamb of God, Agnus Dei

2. ChristianityThe constellation and zodiacal sign Aries.

   The Fish, His Church in union bound; The Lamb, once slain, but now enthroned; The Bull the victory shall gain; The Twins, Divine and human reign.

   1862, [Frances Rolleston], Mazzaroth, or, The Constellations: Part III, London: Rivingtons, page 7

   1 more example

   The lamb slain was called the Paschal Lamb. But what was that lamb? Evidently not an earthly lamb — (though certainly the earthly lambs on the hillsides were just then ready to be killed and eaten) — but the heavenly Lamb, which was slain or sacrificed when the Lord "passed over" the equator and obliterated the constellation Aries.

   1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 40

plural Lambs

1. slangAlternative letter-case form of lamb (“a fan of Mariah Carey”).

   Army go full-on militant for BTS, and Lambs live by Mariah Carey.[…]Mariah Carey’s superfans refer to themselves as Lambs.

   2021 September 16, David Oliver, “‘Stan’ culture can prompt star worship at its worst”, in The Indianapolis Star, volume 119, number 68, page 3H

   3 more examples

   Mariah Carey’s memoir opens with the great line: “I refuse to acknowledge time, famously so.” As if to establish the rules of the book, then add, with a toss of hair, but you knew that. Most readers of The Meaning of Mariah Carey, which the record-smashing songstress wrote with Michaela Angela Davis, probably already did know that (and are happy to stick to Mariah’s anti-schedule), but there’s plenty in the 337-page volume that will surprise even the most devoted Lambs.

   2020 September 29, Mary Sollosi, “The Meaning of Mariah Carey is a compelling account of suffering and survival: Review”, in Entertainment Weekly

   Similarly, although critics panned Glitter for being ‘an unintentionally hilarious compendium of time-tested cinematic clichés that illustrates the chasm between hopeful imitation and successful duplication,’ as the New York Times (Van Gelder 2001) put it, during the #JusticeForGlitter campaign, Mariah Carey’s fans, the Lambs, posted clips from the film on Twitter and reasserted their love for it.

   2020, Rebecca Coleman, “The G-Word: Film, Fantasy and Afro-Fabulative Futures”, in Glitterworlds: The Future Politics of a Ubiquitous Thing, Goldsmiths Press, →ISBN, page 118

   Ryan Reynolds has labelled himself a ‘total Lamb’, as he was revealed to be the brains behind the idea of using Mariah Carey’s Fantasy as the anthem for his upcoming movie Free Guy.

   2021 August 6, Tori Brazier, “Make space in the Lambily as Ryan Reynolds brands himself ‘total Mariah Carey fan’ for Fantasy-filled Free Guy”, in Metro

1. abbreviationacronymuncountablemedicineAcronym of lentigines, atrial myxomas, mucocutaneous myxomas, and blue naevi.