SHEEPSKIN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does sheepskin mean? 

• SHEEPSKIN (noun)
  The noun SHEEPSKIN has 3 senses:

1. tanned skin of a sheep with the fleece left on; used for clothing

2. skin of a sheep or goat prepared for writing on

3. a document certifying the successful completion of a course of study

  Familiarity information: SHEEPSKIN used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SHEEPSKIN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Tanned skin of a sheep with the fleece left on; used for clothing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

fleece; sheepskin

Hypernyms ("sheepskin" is a kind of...):

leather (an animal skin made smooth and flexible by removing the hair and then tanning)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sheepskin"):

Golden Fleece (in Greek mythology, a fleece of gold owned by the king of Colchis and guarded in a sacred grove by a dragon; recovered by Jason and the Argonauts)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Skin of a sheep or goat prepared for writing on

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

lambskin; parchment; sheepskin

Hypernyms ("sheepskin" is a kind of...):

animal skin (the outer covering of an animal)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sheepskin"):

vellum (fine parchment prepared from the skin of a young animal e.g. a calf or lamb)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A document certifying the successful completion of a course of study

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

diploma; sheepskin

Hypernyms ("sheepskin" is a kind of...):

certificate; certification; credential; credentials (a document attesting to the truth of certain stated facts)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sheepskin"):

Higher National Diploma; HND (a diploma given for vocational training that prepares the student for a career in a particular area; good students may progress to a course leading to a degree)

 Context examples 

What an excellent device, said he, the use of a sheepskin for carriages.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

There is ever some cursed sheepskin in their strong boxes to prove that the rich man should be richer and the poor man poorer.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On this were sure to be seated quite a group of home-coming peasants, the Cszeks with their white, and the Slovaks with their coloured, sheepskins, the latter carrying lance-fashion their long staves, with axe at end.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He was a rough, powerful peasant, with cap and tunic of untanned sheepskin, leather breeches, and galligaskins round legs and feet.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

With joy I hurried to the window, and saw drive into the yard two great leiter-wagons, each drawn by eight sturdy horses, and at the head of each pair a Slovak, with his wide hat, great nail-studded belt, dirty sheepskin, and high boots.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The four on this side are all workers, three of them in the service of the bailiff of Sir Baldwin Redvers, and the other, he with the sheepskin, is, as I hear, a villein from the midlands who hath run from his master.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

See to the noble armor set forth, and the costly taffeta—and oh, Ford, see to where the scrivener sits with the pigments and the ink-horns, and the rolls of sheepskin as white as the Beaulieu napery!

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then he had but to bring out the old romance book from the priory, with befingered cover of sheepskin and gold letters upon a purple ground, to entice her wayward mind back to the paths of learning.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The peasant in the sheepskins, who had sat glum and silent all evening, had been so heated by his flagon of ale that he was talking loudly and angrily with clenched hands and flashing eyes.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The company was completed by a peasant in a rude dress of undyed sheepskin, with the old-fashioned galligaskins about his legs, and a gayly dressed young man with striped cloak jagged at the edges and parti-colored hosen, who looked about him with high disdain upon his face, and held a blue smelling-flask to his nose with one hand, while he brandished a busy spoon with the other.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)