Definition of "black sheep" []

• A sheep with black fleece. (noun)
• A member of a family or other group who is considered undesirable or disreputable. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "One day a swivel-chair pilot, an equip - ment officer, made the amazing discovery that there was a black sheep in his flock."
• "I never heard him utter an irrevocable judgment, even when the black sheep of the estate, a foul-mouthed farmer of whose malpractices he had had to complain to the landlord, had accused him of some dishonest trick or other."
• "Those who saw him told me he looked pleased; but he sent me no message showing a change of viewpoint, and the gulf between the family and its black sheep remained unbridged."