sheepwise

The ganders spread abroad, sheepwise, grazing, and gabbling as they grazed. The geese came up from, or went down to the water with their families, stopping by the way to say things to other geese; and the young, waddling and paddling, frolicked even up to the hard, strong legs of the motionless skua.

1924 November 30, F. St. Mars [Frank Howard Atkins], “The Raider”, in Adventure, volume 49, number 6, page 159

[…] a public that either sheepwise has followed them or that seems frequently to go to almost anything provided only it contains songs, girls, and scenery representing something other than a sitting-room or library. It is this often apparently goat-like and easily impressed […]

1951, George Jean Nathan, The Theatre Book of the Year: A Record and an Interpretation, Alfred A. Knopf, page 275

It was assumed, when Johns Hopkins showed the way, that every university student was or should be engaged in original research and thus a candidate for the doctor's degree. This not unnatural assumption had the unfortunate result of dividing all graduate students, sheepwise and goatwise, into those who got the doctorate and those who failed, and here the M.A. came in as a solatium. To pursué higher studies for a year without enlisting as an investigator thus became respectable. This was a gain. It enabled school teachers and college graduates of scholarly tastes to undertake university studies without later having to explain that they had not been refused the doctorate.

1911 February 23, The Nation, volume 92, number 2382, page 186