black sheep

One who is unlike other members of a family, group, or organization, sometimes due to intentional rebelliousness, and often viewed unfavorably by them. (Sometimes used in the expanded phrase "the black sheep of the family.") Everyone likes me because I'm so quiet and obedient. The same cannot be said for my wild cousin Nathan, who's been the black sheep since we were kids. The studio is proving to be quite the black sheep of the movie industry, making big-budget films that fly in the face of Hollywood's conventions.

The least reputable member of a group; a disgrace. For example, Uncle Fritz was the black sheep of the family; we always thought he emigrated to Argentina to avoid jail . This metaphor is based on the idea that black sheep were less valuable than white ones because it was more difficult to dye their wool different colors. Also, in the 16th century, their color was considered the devil's mark. By the 18th century the term was widely used as it is today, for the odd member of a group.

COMMON If you describe someone as the black sheep or the black sheep of the family, you mean that the other people in their family disapprove of them and consider their behaviour to be bad. `I was always the black sheep,' he says. `Everyone else stayed in New Jersey but I was the one to go.' My uncle was the black sheep of the family and we were never encouraged to talk about him. Note: Black sheep are less valuable than white sheep since their wool cannot be dyed. In addition, people used to associate the colour black with evil.

A deviant or eccentric; the least successful, least admirable member of a group. Black sheep were long considered less valuable than white ones because their wool could not readily be dyed. Several sixteenth-century writers wrote of the black sheep as a dangerous (“perilous”) animal, among them John Lyly. In the eighteenth century, the application to the human deviant became common. Sir Walter Scott wrote, “The curates know best the black sheep of the flock” (1816), and “the black sheep of the family” was an increasingly common way of singling out the odd member.

A disreputable or unloved family member. Since the majority of domestic sheep have white fleece, a black one would be different from the rest of the flock. And because the word “black” has a historically strong negative connotation, one of that color would be unwanted (in real life, sheep farmers don't like them because black fleece, which can't be dyed, is less commercially valuable). In the age of politically correct speech, the phrase is now infrequently used, and that's not because family members now get along in greater harmony than they once did.