subs. phr. (old).—1.  A slinking thief; also SHEEP-SHEARER and SHEEP-NAPPER (the latter spec. = a sheep-stealer); SHEEP-BITING = sneaking.

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  1609.  The Man in the Moone. A sepulchre to seafish and others in ponds, moates, and rivers; a sharpe SHEEPE-BITER, and a marveilous mutton monger, a gorbelly glutton.

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  1602.  SHAKESPEARE, Twelfth Night, ii. 5, 6. Sir To. Wouldst thou not be glad to have the niggardly rascally SHEEP-BITER come by some notable shame? Ibid. (1603), Measure for Measure, v. 1, 359. You bald-pated, lying rascal…. Show your SHEEP-BITING face, and be hanged an hour!

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  1611.  CHAPMAN, May-Day, iii. 1. I wish all such old SHEEP-BITERS might always dip their fingers in such sauce to their mutton.

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  1620.  MIDDLETON, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, ii. 2. SHEEP-BITING mongrels, hand-basket freebooters.

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  d. 1704.  SIR R. L’ESTRANGE, Fables, 330. There are Political SHEEP-BITERS as well as Pastoral; Betrayers of Publique Trusts, as well as of Private.

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  1712.  J. SHIRLEY, The Triumph of Wit, ‘The Black Procession,’ vi.

        The sixteenth a SHEEP-NAPPER, whose trade is so deep,
If he’s caught in the corn, he’s marked for a sheep.

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  2.  (old).—‘A poor sorry, sneaking ill-lookt Fellow’ (B. E.).

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