sheepish
adjective

- embarrassed because you know that you have done something wrong or silly

Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

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ORIGIN
 
Around 1200 AD, Old English “sceaplic” meant resembling a sheep in some perceived characteristic. The sense of “bashful, over-modest, awkward among strangers” is first recorded in the 1690s.

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CLEVER SHEEP
 
A study by Keith Kendrick, who is now at the University of Electronic Science and Technology in China, found that sheep can recognise and remember at least 50 individual faces for more than 2 years. That is longer than many human.

In the study, Kendrick’s team trained sheep to distinguish between 25 pairs of sheep, by associating one member of each pair with a food reward.

“Sheep showed clear behavioural signs of recognising… individuals by vocalising in response to their face pictures,” says Kendrick. The team also found evidence that “sheep can differentiate facial expressions, and prefer a smile to a frown”.
 
Source: BBC Earth - “Sheep are not stupid, and they are not helpless either”

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SYNONYMS
 
ashamed, awkward, blushing, chastened, conscience-stricken, discomposed, disconcerted, discountenanced, disgraced, egg on one’s face, flustered, humbled, humiliated, ill at ease, red-faced, rueful, self-accusing, self-condemnatory, self-incriminating, self-reproachful, shamefaced, SHEEPISH, shown-up, thrown, unsettled, wishing the earth would swallow one up, with one’s tail between one’s legs

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ANIMALS AS ADJECTIVES
 
- chicken = cowardly

- mousey = shy, nervous and not having many interesting qualities

- piggish = greedy

- pigheaded = stubborn

- snakelike = treacherous

- foxy = sly, smart

- elephantine = very large

- fishy = seeming dishonest or false

- ratty = irritable, easily annoyed

- lion-hearted = very brave

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PRACTICE OWAD in an English conversation, say something like:

“When I pointed out a mistake in the spreadsheet, the consultant looked at me with a SHEEPISH grin.”

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Paul Smith