As promised yesterday, here are some more lamby words. Wovember friend Liz Ashdowne has found them all in the Oxford English Dictionary!
gimmer-lamb, n.
A female lamb that has not been shorn.
a1642 H. Best Farming & Memorandum Bks. (1984) 4 From lambinge time‥till clippinge time‥they [sc. ewes] are called gimmer lambes.
hob-lamb, n.
A lamb reared by hand.
1847 in J. O. Halliwell Dict. Archaic & Provinc. Words
1875 W. D. Parish Dict. Sussex Dial., Hob-lamb, a pet lamb, brought up by hand.
mutton dressed lamb-fashion: applied to an old woman dressed in youthful style.
1810 Splendid Follies I. 131 Ewe mutton without garnish is a tough bite, to be sure; but methinks she’s dished herself off to day, lamb-fashion.
in three (or two) shakes of a sheep’s (or lamb’s) tail: very quickly
1858 S. A. Hammett Piney Woods Tavern xxiv. 260 Out come my mare, and in a couple of shakes of a sheep’s tail we was a doin’ our three minits jest as fine as silk.
Picture and © Pam Hall – Herdwick sheep from her own flock