Meaning
Someone who presents a harmless, kind or trustworthy appearance while concealing hostile, greedy or predatory intentions. Almost always a warning that a person, group or thing is not what it seems, and strongly negative in force. Strongly negative; implies deliberate deception hiding malice or danger. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The imagery is ancient and reaches English through two linked strands. The Gospel warning at Matthew 7:15, that false prophets come 'in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves', appeared in English earliest in Wycliffe's 1382 Bible, and the King James wording of 1611 fixed the familiar phrasing. A parallel fable tradition going back to Aesop tells of a wolf wrapped in a sheepskin; Caxton's 1484 English Aesop oddly features a dog rather than a wolf, and the best-known English fable text is Townsend's 1867 translation, in which the disguised wolf is killed by mistake. A modern Dictionary of Proverbs records the saying as an English proverb by John Heywood's 1546 collection. Which strand fed the English idiom is not settled, though the biblical wording is the closest match to the phrase we use.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- a wolf in sheep's skin
- in sheep's clothing
- wolves in sheep's clothing
Usage Examples
- The so-called charity turned out to be a wolf in sheep's clothing, pocketing most of the donations.
- He charmed the interview panel, but within a year the partners realised they had hired a wolf in sheep's clothing.
- Regulators keep warning that some of these crypto funds are wolves in sheep's clothing.