Definition
A sheep, ram, or ewe under the age of one year. The term functions as a precise age-based classification of livestock, distinguishing younger animals from mature sheep in legal and agricultural contexts where the age and character of stock is legally material — particularly in cases involving theft, trespass, distress, warranty of sale, or the interpretation of bequests and conveyances that reference livestock by type.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A young sheep; also used figuratively for an innocent or gentle person.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The young of the sheep; also applied figuratively to any innocent or unsophisticated person, and in Stock Exchange cant to a naive speculator who is easily victimized.
The common meaning is accurate as far as it goes, but it lacks the legal precision that matters in practice: "lamb" in law is not merely a young sheep in a general sense but carries a defined age threshold — under one year. In disputes over stolen or damaged livestock, warranty of animals sold, or the construction of testamentary or contractual language, this age boundary is operative, not merely descriptive.
Why It Matters in Research
The legal significance of this term is narrow but real. When historical sources — pleadings, indictments, agricultural leases, or wills — specify "lambs" among livestock, researchers should treat the term as carrying an implied age limitation of under one year. This matters most in three contexts:
First, in criminal law, particularly older larceny indictments, the precise description of stolen goods was a formal pleading requirement. An indictment for stealing a "lamb" rather than a "sheep" or "ewe" could be legally consequential, and variance between pleading and proof on the animal's age was a recognized ground of challenge.
Second, in contract and sale disputes involving livestock, warranty and valuation arguments may turn on whether an animal qualified as a lamb or had passed into the category of sheep. Researchers reviewing older English and American agricultural case law should watch for this distinction.
Third, in testamentary and estate contexts, bequests of "my lambs" or "my sheep" raised interpretive questions about which animals passed under each term.
Anderson's Dictionary of Law redirects to SHEEP, signaling that the broader entry carries the substantive treatment. Researchers working with this term should consult that cross-reference in historical sources for the fuller livestock classification framework.
The 4 Car. & P. 216 citation (Carrington & Payne's Nisi Prius Reports, English) is the common anchor across Black's and Bouvier's — it provides the definitional authority and may be worth consulting directly for the pleading context in which the age definition was applied.
Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries are in complete agreement on substance: a lamb is a sheep, ram, or ewe under one year of age, with all four tracing to the same English reporter citation. There is no divergence.
Black's 2nd edition adds two notable companion entries — Lambard's Archaionomia (1568, containing Anglo-Saxon laws and those of William the Conqueror and Henry I) and Lambard's Eirenarcha (on the office of justice of the peace, editions 1579 and 1581, reprinted 1599) — alphabetically adjacent entries that have no relationship to the livestock definition but are useful research references in their own right.
Bouvier's cuts off mid-entry in the available source text, but the substantive content it preserves matches the other dictionaries exactly.
None of the historical dictionaries address the term's relevance to American statutory or common law contexts; the definition is grounded in English authority and transmitted without adaptation.